 Nasr is also a Senior Fellow in foreign policy at Brookings Institution and is described by "The Economist" as "a leading world authority on Shia Islam".Son of Iranian philosopher Hossein Nasr, Vali Nasr was born in Tehran in 1960, went to school in England at age 16, and immigrated to the U.S. after the 1979 Revolution.He received his BA from Tufts University in International Relations summa cum laude.