AP � Iran on Sunday awarded its biennial $500,000 Mustafa Prize to two computer science experts, an Iranian and a Turkish-French national.

The science and technology award, which was handed out only for the second time ever, is given to Muslim researchers and scientists regardless of whether they live in Muslim-majority nations or elsewhere, as well as non-Muslim scientists in Muslim countries.

According to a statement, Iran�s vice president in charge of scientific affairs, Sourena Sattari, said that the Turkish-French national, Sami Erol Gelenbe, and Iran�s Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi, were being honored for their achievements in systems assessment in model-making and computer coding.

Along with medals and certificates, each winner gets $500,000.

Iran first handed out the prize in 2015 to a Taiwanese-Singaporean nanotechnology researcher Jackie Y.Ying and Jordanian-American chemistry professor Omar Yaghi.

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This story has been corrected to say that the prize is handed out every two years, not biannually.