Rasheed Azzam, an electrical engineering professor who taught for more than four decades at the University of New Orleans and was named one of UNO’s first distinguished professors, died Feb. 17. He was 76.
Azzam received his bachelor’s degree in science from Cairo University and his doctorate from the University of Nebraska where he held postdoctoral and faculty positions until he joined UNO in 1979.
In 1982, he became a member of UNO’s inaugural class of faculty members to be recognized with the Distinguished Professor title.
Azzam’s research interests included polarized light: its mathematical representations and physical measurement; ellipsometry: its theory, instrumentation, and applications for the characterization of surfaces and thin films; optical polarimetry based on reflective silicon detectors and diffraction gratings; optics of thin films and design of optical devices for polarized light; optics of anisotropic media and liquid crystals; and the theory of reflection. His book, “Ellipsometry and Polarized Light,” has been cited over 10,000 times and translated into several languages.
Azzam, who retired from UNO in 2020 after teaching for 41 years, was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor at Université de Provence in France and professor of physics at the American University in Cairo. He served as topical editor for the Journal of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and Applied Optics, and as member of the OSA Publications Council.
His honors include the 2005 GG Stokes Award of SPIE, International Society for Optical Engineering; 1993 Photonics Circle of Excellence Award; 1993 R and D Award; 1988 Outstanding American Inventor; and fellow of the Optical Society of America and SPIE.
While Azzam made significant advances in his field, his family said he will be most remembered by those who knew him as a man of principle, faith, generosity and humor.
He is survived by Fatema, his wife of 47 years; daughter Reem Azzam; sons Omar, Adel, Yousef, Yahya and Kareem Azzam; and grandchildren Maryam and Khadeeja Abdallah, Layla, Lemees, Zade and Hana Azzam.
