Pacific Palisades resident Ishaq Shahryar, a scientist and entrepreneur who spent his life advancing solar technology, died April 12. He was 73 years old. Born January 10, 1936 in Kabul, Afghanistan, Shahryar earned a scholarship in 1956 to attend college in the United States at UC Berkeley. After one year, he transferred to UC Santa Barbara, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical chemistry and international relations, respectively. After completing his schooling, Shahryar worked for aerospace companies that manufactured space solar cells for NASA’s unmanned satellites. In the early 1970s, when the government began looking for alternative sources of energy, Shahryar took a job with Spectrolab, a division of Hughes Aircraft. With the help of two other scientists, he invented low-cost solar (photovoltaic) cells and developed the process of screen-printing cells on solar panels, which is still used in the market today. When Hughes Aircraft wanted to focus more on space, Shahryar founded his own company, Solec International, Inc., in 1976. His company, located in Hawthorne, commercialized the photovoltaics field. He moved to Pacific Palisades in 1981 and three years later married Hafizah Mansury. They had two children, Alexander, who lives in Pacific Palisades, and Jahan, who is studying political science at UC Santa Barbara. Shahryar received a U.S. patent for creating a 20-percent-efficient silicon solar cell in 1993. A year later, he sold Solec International to Sanyo/Sumitomo of Japan and then founded and managed Solar Utility, Inc., in Los Angeles. In 2001, he applied for a new patent that reduces the manufacturing cost of silicon solar cells by 50 percent. In 2002, Shahryar sold his company in order to volunteer as the Afghan ambassador to the United States. He was the first Afghan ambassador in 23 years for the United States, representing the government of Hamid Karzai for one year. He helped to found American University of Kabul and the Afghanistan Technical and Vocational Institute. Last year, Shahryar, with his son Alexander, opened Sun King Solar, Inc. in Pacific Palisades to install solar panels on commercial and residential buildings. [The Palisadian-Post highlighted his new business in ‘Meet Our Local Sun King’ on October 1, 2008.] Shahryar is survived by his wife and children as well as extended family and numerous friends. Services were held on April 18 at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills. Donations in his honor can be made to any charity.
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