Dean Bassiouni Retires

June 30, 2008

A professional petroleum engineer since 1964, Dr. Zaki Bassiouni, Bert S. Turner Chair in Engineering, joined LSU in 1977. He was a professor and chair of the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering from July 1983 to June 2004, before assuming the position of Dean of the College of Engineering (CoE). 

Bassiouni received a BS in petroleum engineering from Cairo University in Egypt, a diploma in geophysics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pétrole et des Moteurs of Paris in France, and a MS (DEA) and PhD (Docteur En Sciences) from the University of Lille in France. He has worked for the French Petroleum Institute, Marathon Oil Company, and Chevron Oil Company. His experience includes well logging, petrophysics, reservoir engineering, property evaluation and alternative sources of energy.

Bassiouni was the 1995 recipient of SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty, an award established to recognize superiority in classroom teaching, excellence in research, and significant contributions to the petroleum engineering profession. He was also the recipient of the Louisiana Engineering Foundation Faculty Professionalism Award for 2000. He was a SPE Distinguished lecturer for the 2004-2005 season. In addition, Bassiouni was selected as the 2006 recipient of the SPE Formation Evaluation Award, an award that recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions to the advancement of petroleum engineering in the area of formation evaluation.

In addition to his academic contributions and publications, Bassiouni has provided technical expertise to the international oil and gas industries. He has conducted training in more than thirty countries worldwide. He is the author of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Textbook Series Vol. 4 "Theory, Measurement, and Interpretation of Well Logs." Bassiouni is a member of the national honorary society Pi Epsilon Tau, a registered professional engineer in Louisiana, a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and a member of the Society of Professional Well Log Analysts.

During his tenure as Dean, Bassiouni strove to improve the College in many ways. He focused attention on the need for research to aid the College in gaining recognition as a major center of learning and innovation and stated, “Imaginative research and inspired teaching go hand in hand.” To generate heightened interest in CoE research, he and former ExxonMobil executive vice president, Harry Longwell, launched the LSU Oil & Gas Initiative, working with petrochemical companies to match their research needs with CoE expertise. Bassiouni also saw the inception of the Fund for Innovation in Engineering Research established by the Longwell Family Foundation to encourage faculty to be progressive in research projects. In addition, Bassiouni oversaw the initial development of the “Critical Thinking” initiative. This idea shifts from the conventional educational practices that focus on teaching students what to think to an approach that teaches them how to think, so students gain life-long skills  to identify, formulate, and solve problems. New communication-intensive engineering courses and the Engineering Communication Studio have contributed to making CoE graduates even more successful. Bassiouni embraced the University’s drive for diversity and inclusiveness by creating the Office of Diversity Programs in Engineering under the direction of a new Associate Dean for Women and Minorities. The program aims to equalize participation of under-represented and minority students and faculty. He also welcomed the addition of the new Engineering Residential College as a way to enhance community and improve retention among first-year engineering students. 

Realizing that most of the objectives for the College were impossible to achieve at the current levels of state funding, he fortified the Engineering Development Office to seek out external funds for the college. Individual and corporate donors are helping fund professorships, assistantships, fellowships, and scholarships in addition to improving laboratories, classrooms, tutoring centers, and meeting places college-wide.

He will perhaps be best remembered for his commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and outreach.

Article by Mimi LaValle, LSU College of Engineering, 225-578-5706, mlavall@lsu.edu

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