Nearly 50 years after helping launch a Knoxville engineering company from a graduate-school project, Dr. H.M. “Hash” Hashemian can point to three doctoral degrees, 22 U.S. patents, three technical books and a business whose work reaches nuclear power plants around the world. But when Jonathan Palk asked him about success, Hashemian’s answer centered less on credentials than on people.
In Palk’s interview, Hashemian emphasized the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people and finding mentors who do more than offer advice. Good mentorship, he said, creates a place where a person can be vulnerable, test ideas and dream bigger than he or she might alone.
That perspective fits a career that began far from Knoxville. Hashemian grew up in Iran, where his father was a prominent human rights and criminal defense attorney. His father hoped his son would follow him into law, but Hashemian chose science and engineering instead. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in Iran in 1973 and came to the United States the following year. After briefly studying in Texas, he moved to Knoxville, drawn in part by the University of Tennessee and nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
At UT, Hashemian pursued nuclear engineering and worked with professor Tom Kerlin on a graduate project involving the response time of temperature sensors used in nuclear reactors. The work had commercial potential. In 1977, the two cofounded Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation, better known as AMS.
What began as a small Knoxville operation grew into a global nuclear engineering company. AMS says its equipment, testing, training and engineering services have been delivered in 26 countries and that the company has served virtually every U.S. nuclear power plant, along with plants in Europe and Asia. Hashemian later bought out his partner and continued building the company from Knoxville.
His academic résumé eventually became as unusual as his business story. Hashemian earned a Doctor of Engineering degree in electrical engineering from Lamar University, a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering/applied physics from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Western University in Canada. He also teaches as an adjunct professor of nuclear engineering at UT and as an adjunct professor of practice at Georgia Tech.
The professional honors followed. Hashemian is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the International Society of Automation. He has written or co-written nearly 400 journal articles, conference papers and technical reports. In June 2025, he became president of the American Nuclear Society for the 2025-26 term, with workforce development and mentorship among his stated priorities.
Yet the thread running through his conversation with Palk is not a list of achievements. It is the recognition that no one builds a lasting career alone. Choosing talented people, listening to mentors and being willing to admit what you do not know can matter as much as technical knowledge.
Hashemian also talked about giving back — another theme that has followed him through his years in East Tennessee. He and his family have supported community organizations, and he has remained closely connected to engineering education. For someone whose own path was shaped by professors, colleagues and opportunities in Knoxville, mentorship becomes more than a business strategy. It is a way to help the next person find a path of his or her own.
His story also carries a reminder for anyone whose future does not look exactly like the one a parent envisioned. Hashemian did not become the lawyer his father expected. He followed engineering instead, came halfway around the world and helped turn a university project into a company approaching its 50th anniversary.
And after all those years, degrees and accomplishments, one of his clearest lessons is surprisingly simple: Find good people. Learn from them. Give others room to dream. Then, when you are in a position to do it, give something back.
Watch the interview
Jonathan Palk’s interview with Dr. Hash Hashemian, “The importance of mentorship and surrounding oneself with good mentors,” is available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHmY8j8J8z4
Jonathan Palk with Peachtree Planning: Changing the world, ONE person, ONE family at a time.
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