Behdad Esfahbod | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1982-09-27)September 27, 1982 (age 43) |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto, MBA (2012) University of Toronto, M.S. Computer Science (2006) Sharif University B.S. Computer Engineering (2003) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer Technology |
| Institutions | Facebook;Google;RedHat;GNOME; FarsiWeb |
Seyed Behdad Esfahbod MirHosseinZadeh Sarabi[1] (Persian:سید بهداد اسفهبد میر حسینزاده سرابی; born September 27, 1982) is anIranian-Canadian software engineer andfree software developer. He is best known for creatingHarfBuzz. He was a software engineer atFacebook from February 2019 until July 1, 2020; before that he was a Senior Staff Software Engineer atGoogle since 2010, and before that atRed Hat.
Esfahbod holds an MBA from theUniversity of Toronto,Rotman School of Management and a Master of Science degree from theUniversity of Toronto in Computer Science, and a Bachelor of Science degree fromSharif University in Computer Engineering, Software.[2]
While at high school Esfahbod won asilver in the 1999International Olympiad in Informatics[3] and thengold in 2000.[4]
Esfahbod was among the founders of Sharif FarsiWeb Inc. which carried out internationalization and standardization projects related to open source and Persian language. He was a member of board of directors atGNOME Foundation from 2007[5] to 2010,[6] serving as the president from 2008[7] to 2009.
Esfahbod is an expert on font engineering and internationalization, a frequent speaker at workshops and conferences. He has contributed to many open-source projects. Among the projects he has led are theCairo,fontconfig,HarfBuzz, andPango libraries, which are standard parts of theGNOME desktop environment, theGoogle Chrome web browser, and theLibreOffice suite of programs. He received anO'Reilly Open Source Award in 2013 for his work on HarfBuzz.[8]
Esfahbod was arrested by theIslamic Revolutionary Guards Corps intelligence echelon during a 2020 visit to Tehran. He was then moved toEvin prison, where he was psychologically pressured and interrogated in solitary confinement for 7 days. They downloaded all his private data from his devices. Iranian security forces let him go based on his promise to spy on his friends once he was back in the United States.[9][10][11]
He has a brother and a sister.[12] He ispansexual.[13]
| Software and libraries | |
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| Licenses | |
| Operating system, corporate and professional |
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| Government typefaces | |
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