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Longtime Civil Engineering Professor Osman Ghazzaly Retires
By
Esmeralda Fisher
Ghazzaly
Ghazzaly

In honor of an illustrious career spanning decades, colleagues, students, friends and family of Osman Ghazzaly gathered to celebrate his achievements on Saturday, December 3 at the HESS Club.

Speakers, including Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Chair DJ Belarbi, Professors Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan, Thomas Hsu, and Reagan Herman, and former Cullen College Dean Raymond Flumerfelt regaled the audience with tales of Ghazzaly as a teacher, friend, and colleague. Ghazzaly was presented with a plaque honoring his 45 years of service, as well as a slide rule and a scientific calculator to represent changes from the time he began teaching at UH in 1966 until today.

Ghazzaly came to the Cullen College of Engineering as an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Three years later he was promoted to associate professor, a position he would hold for nearly three decades before being promoted to professor in 1997.

Along with teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in geotechnical engineering, and undergraduate courses in mechanics, materials and transportation, Ghazzaly served as associate chair of the department, director of graduate and undergraduate studies, and graduate and undergraduate advisor over various periods in his academic career. He has published and presented research on a number of topics in geotechnical engineering, and has supervised the research of over 10 graduate students.

Ghazzaly is a life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has received over 20 teaching and achievement awards, including the college’s Career Teaching Award, the Kittinger Award for Excellence in Teaching, the UH Alumni Organization Outstanding Faculty Award, the George Magner Academic Advising Award, the Dukler Distinguished Engineering Faculty Award, and Professor of the Year  from the UH ASCE Student Chapter. He was also honored with the El Paso Corporation Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching and Scholarship.

Ghazzaly received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Cairo in 1958, and his M.S. in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. in Civil/Geotechnical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1963 and 1965, respectively.

Ghazzaly Faculty Achievement Award
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Professor Ghazzaly would like to establish an endowment for the Ghazzaly Faculty Achievement Award. This award will be presented to an outstanding faculty member each year in recognition of their innovation and excellence in teaching, research or service. In honor of Professor Ghazzaly's long record of teaching excellence, the award will support CEE faculty in their endeavors to provide an outstanding academic experience for engineering students.

If you would like to contribute to this fund, visit Cullen College of Engineering Giving to make an online gift, or submit the Ghazzaly Faculty Achievement Award form (PDF).

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