Paul Luft, MA, PhD, was elected an Honorary Vice President in 2006. He is Fellow of the German Historical Institute, London and an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, Durham University, where he co-founded a Centre for Iranian Studies. His main academic interests are the periods of transformation in 19th and 20th century Iran, including the political and cultural changes from a tribalised to a court society in the first half of the 19th century and further administrative reorganisation of the state in Iran in the early period of Reza Shah.