A University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) student is among those killed in a plane crash in Iran.

Zeynab Asadi Lari, who was pursuing a science degree at UTM, was one of 176 people reportedly killed when Ukraine International Airlane Flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff in Iran on Jan. 8.

Asadi Lari was the UTM branch president of the STEM Fellowship, a Canadian nonprofit that mentors young scholars in data science and scholarly writing.

STEM Fellowship co-founder Dr. Sacha Noukhovitch confirmed that Asadi Lari, and her brother, Mohammed Asadi Lari, were on the plane that crashed.

Noukhovitch called the news of the deaths “absolutely devastating.”

Noukhovitch said that Mohammed Asadi Lari, who co-founded the STEM Fellowship and was pursuing a medical doctorate and PhD at University of Toronto, was collaborating with a community of doctors to help address health and privacy issues.

“He was really not an ordinary type of person,” Noukhovitch said.

Zeynab Asadi Lari was in her 22nd year, while her brother Mohammed was in his 24th year, according to the birth dates listed on the flight passenger list.

In a statement, University of Toronto president Meric Gertler said that several U of T students in died in the crash.

"On behalf of the entire University of Toronto community, I want to say how deeply saddened we are, and how concerned we are for the families and friends of those who lost their lives,” Gertler said. “We are continuing to gather information, and taking care to respect the privacy and wishes of all involved.”