Detailed Biography
Professor Akbar Adibi was born on February 2, 1939 in the city of Songhor,
in North East of province Kermanshah.
Due to family issues, and simultaneously working and studying, he ended his
schooling at age 22 and he attended the National University Entrance
Examination and despite of all sorts of shortages and difficulties in his life,
he was admitted to the best University and field, University
of Tehran, field of Electrical Engineering.
He successfully finished his 4 year study with distinction
and was awarded Master of Science by the university and he was offered a job as
a University Instructor at the Tehran
Polytechnic University, a well known technical university in Tehran where
he served for 7 years in year 1966. He got married in September 1969 and his
first child, Sasan Adibi,
was born in October 1970.
He attended the National Bursary Competition for Oversea
Graduate Studies in both languages, French and English, where he studied for
about 6 months and he scored 10 out of 1200 applicants and he was admitted to
several French and American Universities for his Graduate Studies, which he
chose University of California, Santa Barbara.
He went to USA with full scholarship in year 1973
He embarked the journey to UCSB in Santa Barbara California
in Spring 1973 and his family joined him in Fall 1973. He began a difficult
road of climbing the highest mountains in academic pursues and he reached the
top soon.
His 4 years of hard-working, full-dimensional study period
ended with huge success. He achieved two Master of Science Degrees, one in
Digital and Computer Systems using Microprocessors and the other one was in Solid
State and Semiconductor Devices, two totally different fields both with
distinction. He also received his Doctoral Philosophy Degree in Semiconductor
field with distinction. His achievements were so high, he was the
representative of his class to any visitors and outsiders. His Dissertation
title was “Schottky Barrier Solar Cell”. Meanwhile Professor’s second child,
Mahsa Adibi was born in July 1976
He returned to Iran right after his graduation and started
teaching in the Tehran Polytechnic University of Technology (later changed name
to Amirkabir University of Technology), where he was employed as an Assistant
Professor in 1977. He was also employed as a researcher in the Material and Energy Research
Center (MERC) in Tehran, where the most sophisticated equipments could be
found and the most cutting-edge technologies were used.
Professor created Iran’s first Solar Cell in year 1978 and
in year 1980 he became the Vice Dean of MERC. In year 1983 Professor Adibi
established the Graduate Study department in the Electrical Engineering
Department of Amirkabir University for the first time and they began admitting
people at the Master of Science Degree for the first time. He became the Head
of Graduate Studies in that year.
Professor was permitted to go on a sabbatical leave,
visiting University of Adelaide in
year 1987 and he was involved in the Semiconductor Research Group there with
the cooperation of Professor K. Eshraghian and in May 1988 they presented a
revolutionizing journal paper “A New Approach to Gallium Arsenide System Design”,
which was published and presented by Professor Akbar Adibi in the 7th
Australian Microelectronics Conference, Sydney University, NSW, which was a
huge success for both University of Adelaide, Professor Adibi and Amirkabir
University of Technology, which granted Professor his Associate Professor Title
in 1988. University of South Australia tried very hard to have Professor’s
permission to extend his visit with a noticeable salary. In a letter to the
Immigration Office of Australia and to Amirkabir University, the emphasized
that Professor Akbar Adibi’s presence is very much needed and vital to the Research
Center, however Amirkabir University refused to issue the permission and
Professor along with his entire family returned to their homeland Iran in 1988.
From 1988 till 1996 Professor began a brilliant path, which resulted
so many distinctions, recognitions, publications, and so many others. Dr.
Hassan Kaatuzian, who became Iran’s first Ph.D. graduated in Electronics in 1994
was Professor’s student. He published more than 100 internal and International
Conference and Journal Papers in most recognized Conferences. He was elected as
a Committee Member of many Conferences. He earned the title “Full Professor” in
year 1995. He earned the respected Kharazmi National Prize for the best project
in 1995. He earned the title of “The Most Recognized and Chosen University
Professor of Iran” and he earned a valuable prize from the hand of the President
of Islamic Republic of Iran in year 1996. He became a Senior IEEE Fellow in the
same year and for his entire contribution to the society of Electronics, he was
titled “The Father of Electronics and VLSI” in Iran.
His brilliant career path continued until the last days of
his fruitful life. His life came to halt on August 26th, 2000 at 6:30 PM local time due to the hearth failure. World lost a valuable
intellectual, whose life was well spent towards making difference in each and
every one of us. All of the 20,000 engineers, intellectuals, professors and
educated people who have been served by Professor Akbar Adibi’s enrich
educational treatment will always remember his words, ideas, wishes and goals.
Please refer to the Message to the World section for more information on the
messages Professor was trying to speak out.
