Prof. Towfighi is currently a full professor of Chemical Engineering at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. His research fields of interest are Optimal Control of Pyrolysis Reactors, Thermal & Catalytic Cracking, Reforming to Synthesis Gas, Process Modeling & Simulation, Kinetic Models for Thermal Cracking Reactions, Reactor & Bioreactor Design, Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA), Gas Sweetening and Science, Research and Technology.

He obtained an M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Shiraz University in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, in 1986Prof. Towfighi is a fellow of the Academy of Sciences of IR Iran as well as the chairman of the Division of Chemical Engineering of the Academy. He is also the president of the Research Institute of Petroleum Industries. Prof. Towfighi is the member of the editorial board of various Iranian Journals and also the member of various scientific institutes and societies. He served as the Minister of Science, Research and Technology of IR Iran for two terms in 2003-2005 and 2013. He was the president of the Council for Higher Education Development, the Supreme Council for Educational Planning and the Central Committee for Faculty Promotion. Prof. Towfighi also served as the Deputy Minister for Education, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and vice president of the Council for Higher Education Development. He was the vice chancellor for educational affairs, and head of the Engineering Faculty of the Tarbiat Modares University.

Prof. Towfighi has received various prestige awards as a distinguished faculty member and distinguished researcher of Tarbiat Modares University and at national level in 1996, 1997, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013 and 2015. He was also the first winner of the Iranian Oil Industries Innovations Award for “Design and Setup of Olefin Furnace Pilot Plant and Developing Software for Simulation of Thermal Cracking Reactors” in Tehran in 2003.