My father, Hoshyar Nooshin, who has died aged 90, was a pioneering figure in the field of spatial structures and director of the University of Surrey’s Spatial Structures Research Centre for 28 years.
Hoshyar taught at Surrey University from its foundation in 1966, having joined its predecessor, the Battersea College of Technology, as a lecturer in 1963. There he became renowned for his research into computer-aided design and as the originator of Formex algebra, a branch of mathematics that developed a set of interactive algorithms used to create complex structures. He also played a key role in creating the programming language Formian.
The ideas for Formex emerged during Hoshyar’s work on the design of the jumbo jet hangars at Heathrow airport in the 1960s, the largest in the world at the time. He was also involved in the design of many other structures globally, including the innovative Nodus building at Surrey University (1971), the cable roof of the Takhti sports stadium in his birthplace, Iran (1974), and the Indira Gandhi arena in New Delhi (1982). In 1985 he founded the International Journal of Space Structures, which remains a leading publication in the field.
Born in Tehran to Ebrahim Nooshin, head of the print room at the Iranian parliament, and Robabeh Afzalipour, a calligrapher and housewife, Hoshyar studied at Alborz high school and then at the University of Tehran’s faculty of engineering, where he became involved in politics, and as a result spent two years in jail as a political prisoner after the 1953 coup.
He arrived in the UK in 1960 to study at Imperial College London, with the intention of returning to Iran to run an engineering consultancy he had co-founded. However his supervisor, Zygmunt Makowski, offered him a PhD place and a post at Battersea College, which soon afterwards became Surrey University, based in Guildford.
Hoshyar married my mother, Nasrin Boroumand, in 1962, but they were divorced in 1968. He later remarried and with his second wife, Pooran (nee Talayedar), had two children, my sister Sepideh and brother Omid. Omid died in 2018.
Hoshyar rose through the ranks at Surrey to become professor in 1996 and continued to teach and supervise long after his official retirement in 2008.
In 2018 he was awarded the Torroja medal, the highest honour from the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, becoming its first ever recipient from the UK.
Throughout his career Hoshyar maintained a close connection with students and colleagues in Iran, particularly with the University of Kerman. Until the mid-2010s he travelled there regularly to teach courses on Formex.
His many interests included a deep love of Persian poetry, and he also developed his own philosophy of life called Paradgan, which he outlined in a self-published book in 2003.
He is survived by Pooran, me, Sepideh and three grandchildren, Navid, Kayvon and Ava.
