Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi (born 1953 in Kerman) is an Iranian politician and was the former minister of science and technology in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In 2006, the Ahmadinejad government systematically forced numerous Iranian scientists and University professors to resign or to retire.

[14] However many believe that the government's main goal is to replace Iranian scientists with fundamentalists and finally convert the universities into Hawza (traditional religious schools).

Zahedi has expelled dozens of politically active students and those who were working in internal newspaper of university by refusing to enroll them for the new academic year (Fall 2006).

[16] Zahedi appointed Abbasali Amid Zanjani, a cleric with no academic degree, as the chancellor of Tehran University.