Behnam was the founding President and Chancellor of the Farabi Institute of Higher Education affiliated with the International University of Iran and licensed under the
Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. In 1957, Behnam, along with Gholam Hossein Sadiqi,
Ehsan Naraghi, Shapour Rasekh formed the first group of French-trained Iranian sociologists. In 1958, they established the Institute for Social Studies and Research (ISSR), initially located at the summer palace of
Fat′h-Ali Shah, the King of
Qajar dynasty. Attached to the faculty of Social Sciences of Tehran University, the institute was the first research center in Iran. From 1959 to 1974, Behnam served as the Professor of Demography and Vice President of
Tehran University. He was the founder and first head of the Faculty of Social Sciences at
Tehran University. He has also worked as the Deputy Secretary General of the World Council of Social Sciences in
Paris, and Professor of Sociology at the
Paris Descartes University. == Published works ==