Hash Hashemian: Visionary leadership

Hash’s father, Ali Hashemian, pictured here with his daughter, Mitra, and sons Hash and Mehrad.

Ali Hashemian with his children (from left): Mitra, Hash, Tashi, and Mehrad.

The Hashemian family (from left): father Ali, Tashi, Mitra, Mehrad, mother Simin, and Hash

With 50 years of ANS membership and professional experience, three doctoral degrees, and a successful track record as the CEO and cofounder of Analysis and Measurement Services Corp. under his belt, Hashemian plans to bring the same level of perseverance to his leadership of the Society as he has throughout his career in nuclear power plant safety and efficiency.

Born in Iran, Hashemian’s long journey throughout the nuclear world has given him a broad perspective on the needs of this moment. In his last month as vice president, he laid out several key goals for his term as ANS’s 71st president: “My focus will be on [supporting] deployment of new nuclear plants and ensuring the continued operation of the existing fleet as well as restarting shut-down plants,” he said, adding that he will work to “encourage the government to continue and increase its financial support for nuclear energy.”

While those are large goals to tackle, Hashemian is no stranger to hard work and balancing multiple priorities. Being part of a large and loving family, running a company, publishing papers, teaching at universities, supporting ANS, and playing roles in state and federal government, he is used to having a full plate.

From Iran to America

From an early age, Hashemian wanted to follow in the footsteps of his late father, who was a prominent criminal defense and women’s rights lawyer in Iran. In high school, he planned to study literature, history, and law and eventually become a lawyer himself, but he was discouraged by his father, who said the future would be in engineering and science and told him to pursue it. “I listened to my dad,” Hashemian said. “He was right.”

After high school, Hashemian went to the National University of Iran. There, he earned a B.S. in physics in 1973. During that time, the Shah—the king of Iran—was developing plans for a robust nuclear power sector in the country. Hashemian explained that the Shah planned to oversee the deployment of “over 20 large-size, Western-made nuclear power plants to generate electricity so that the country’s vast oil and gas products could be exported and used for other purposes.”

With these developments in mind, Hashemian decided to study nuclear engineering. He landed in Houston, Texas, in 1974 at the age of 24, with plans to earn an advanced degree and then return to Iran to work in the country’s emerging nuclear power sector.

Hashemian was picked up from the airport by his brother, who drove him 90 miles east to the small city of Beaumont, Texas. On that drive, he saw a very different country than the one he had expected. “When you arrive in the U.S., you think every place is going to look like New York, a lot of tall buildings and hustle and bustle,” he explained.

In Beaumont—where the tallest building was the four-story university library—Hashemian enrolled at Lamar University and took his first classes in nuclear engineering. After six months, he opted to leave Lamar for the University of Tennessee. He chose UT because of the reputation of its nuclear engineering program and its close connection with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where his aunt, Roudi Jamasebi, was pursuing postdoctoral work as a cancer researcher.

In 1977, Hashemian earned an M.S. in nuclear engineering from UT. His plans to immediately return home changed in favor of first getting some experience in the U.S. and then returning to Iran.

Founding AMS Corp.

“I started AMS in 1977 with the late Tom Kerlin, a UT professor of nuclear engineering and eventual head of the department, as a way to get experience and put the product of my master’s degree to work before I went back to Iran,” Hashemian explained, “but when Iran’s nuclear power program was put on hold, I decided to continue with AMS.”

In 1985, he acquired full ownership of the company and transformed AMS into a global provider of nuclear plant instrumentation and control (I&C) system testing.

Today, AMS has representatives in Austria, China, France, South Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom and operates in 26 countries. The company provides equipment, training, and services to certify the performance of the I&C systems of nearly all of the nuclear power plants in the United States and many across the world, frequently collaborating with a number of national and international organizations such as the U.S. Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute, the International Society of Automation, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Reflecting on his 48 years of leadership with AMS, Hashemian said that “the rise and fall of the nuclear industry has had a big influence. Over the last 15 years, we’ve embraced the development of new technology to support the continued operation of the existing fleet and to help with the deployment of new generations of reactors.”

Continuing education

In 2004, when AMS was “reasonably established and going good on its own,” Hashemian decided to continue with what he originally came to the U.S. to do: pursue his higher education.

He reached out to Wendell C. Bean, who taught the first nuclear engineering course he took at Lamar University. He also reached out to Imre Pazsit, a professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Jin Jiang, professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada—both of whom he had met in Vienna while working with the IAEA to produce voluntary nuclear power plant guidelines.

When all three agreed to have him as a doctoral candidate, Hashemian wasn’t sure where to go. “I applied to all three to give myself plenty of options and time to decide. After a month or so, I decided to start on all three and later determine which one to finish. As I worked on all three, I liked them all, so I decided to continue with each one.”

After about ten years of work, he earned three doctorates: electrical engineering from Lamar, nuclear engineering from Chalmers, and computer engineering from Western. “I don’t know how I did it, but I did it,” he said.

The newest—and cutest—member of the Hashemian family is Hash’s granddaughter, Vera Rose Sizemore, born March 5 of this year.

Hash with his brother Tashi, adopted sister Marquetta, and mom Simin.

Hash’s extended family includes his brother-in-law Asadollah Tamaddoni (Mitra’s husband) and his nephews-in-law Reza Alemzadeh (Tannaz’s husband), and Nouri Rafiee (Tina’s husband).

Other engagements

Between time spent with AMS, ANS, and his family, Hashemian has published three books that have been translated and published into four languages, has been granted 22 patents, and has managed a number of other roles that have given him a comprehensive and overarching view on the U.S. nuclear industry.

He is an adjunct professor of practice at the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology as well as an adjunct professor of nuclear engineering at UT.

He also served on the Tennessee Nuclear Energy Advisory Council, which was created with a multi-million-dollar investment to drive nuclear energy innovation and deployment in Tennessee. Hash previously served on the state’s Energy Policy Council.

At the national level, he served as a member of the Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee, working between 2016 and 2025 to increase U.S. nuclear technology exports and enhance the country’s presence in the global nuclear energy sector.

Commitment to ANS

Hashemian was first introduced to the American Nuclear Society in 1975, when he went to Atlanta for an ANS student conference at Georgia Tech. Enticed by the benefits and community he thought the Society would offer, he joined shortly after.

During the 50 years he has been a member of ANS, Hashemian has served in a number of roles across various conferences and committees. He has acted as the chair of the Society’s Human Factors, Instrumentation and Control Division (HFICD), general chair of the Nuclear Plant Instrumentation and Control & Human-Machine Interface Technology (NPIC&HMIT) Conference, vice chair of the Development Committee, and chair of the Honors and Awards Committee, where he overhauled the award nomination process, increased applications for national awards, and established the Social Responsibility in the Nuclear Community Award.

When asked why being a part of ANS has been such an important part of his career, Hashemian told Nuclear News, “I can’t see the nuclear industry without ANS. The Society brings every nuclear discipline together to learn from each other and exchange ideas.”

With a vision firmly set on the future, Hashemian believes that nuclear energy will remain an essential part of the world’s clean energy portfolio and will work to help bring this vision to life. As the industry evolves, he wants to ensure above all that ANS stands ready to lead the charge, ensuring that nuclear power remains a cornerstone of sustainable energy for generations to come.

Lucas Geiger is an editorial specialist for NN.