Thanun Pyriadi is an Kurdish chemist. Education Pyriadi was born in 1933 in the small village of Ali Mansour near Chamchamal in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was the first graduate in his class since the first year of primary school, secondary school and college to receive a B.Sc. (Honors) in chemistry. He received the Prime Minister's prize for ranking first in his class. Career In 1952 he was trained in Secreen in the north of Iraq as part of his military service. He was the first graduate, and was awarded a prize. In 1967 he obtained his M.Sc. degree in biochemistry from Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in the USA. He received his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry and polymer chemistry in 1970 from the University of Akron, Ohio USA . He returned to Baghdad, Iraq when he was offered a position in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Baghdad. He was promoted to professor in 1988. He was the first to bring polymer chemistry and chemical literature as new subjects to be taught in Iraqi universities. He has also written textbooks and laboratory manuals in both subjects. He worked at the University of Sulaimania between 1972 and 1975. In 1975 he did a post-doctorate at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, AZ, United States, with professor H. K. Hall, Jr., in the field of organic polymers. In 1982 he worked at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the US Department of Chemistry. He was a visiting professor, performing a post doctorate with the late professor C. G. Overberger. He was the first Iraqi professor to participate in writing the recent polymeric material Encyclopedia J.Salamon ed 13 volume CRC press, vol3 and 8, 1996 . He was selected as "First Professor Of The Year" in 1996-1997 . His name is listed in "Who's Who in Iraq in the 20th Century", vol 1, page 72, 1990. Selected publications Preparation of new copolymers of vinyl acetate and N-substituted maleimides, Polymer journal, Volume 37, Issue 23, November 1996, Pages 5283-5287 Synthesis and free radical polymerization of N-substituted citraconimides, Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Volume 18, Issue 8, pages 2535–2541, August 1980 Synthesis, polymerization, and curing of N-substituted citraconimidyl acrylate, Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Volume 37, Issue 4, pages 427–433, 15 February 1999 Anionic ring-opening polymerization of several N-substituted diphenimides, Journal of Polymer Science