Congratulations, Fathi Habashi, on your 88th birthday

A few weeks' ago I caught up with Prof. Fathi Habashi, and he and his wife Nadia kindly showed Barbara and me around the Laval University Campus. Fathi is a remarkable man who celebrated his 88th birthday last Sunday. A few days ago I received this message from Ahmet Deniz Bas, a Ph.D. Candidate in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at Laval:

Fathi Habashi, Professor Emeritus of Extractive Metallurgy at Laval University, Quebec, Canada, is a great man and is truly an inspiration for many of us, specially for students all around the world. His books on extractive metallurgy are regarded as pathfinders for academia and industry. Whenever you listen to him or read his paper, you gain new things not only about the subject but also about its history. As Prof. Habashi says: “Educated people are the most important wealth of a country. Students of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, the Government must supply all possible means to have well educated engineers who could fulfill their responsibilities in the future”. So, please raise your glasses to him.

We, a group of 10 doctorate students in engineering departments at Laval University, organised a surprise birthday party for Prof. Habashi with the help of Nadia, his lovely wife. Prof. Habashi made a special presentation for us telling the story of his life and giving some tips for graduate students. A few of the tips are: “(i) Once you get a satisfactory job consider getting married so that you can lead a civilized life; (ii) You may become a distinguished scientist or a merited engineer but don’t forget that you are first a human being who should be modest and considerate; (iii) Do not stay in what is called “ivory tower”. Travelling and attending conferences have enormous, some times unexpected benefits”. We enjoyed the party with birthday cake, sandwiches (handcraft of Nadia), grape, wine, and etc. One of our friends sang a song and contributed the ambience. We all spent an enjoyable afternoon today.

It was only one month ago that he delivered two presentations at the XXVIII IMPC in Quebec City, which is often called the Olympics of mineral processing. He is quite active, still travelling the world giving courses, and presenting keynote lectures. His next trip will be to Tbilisi, Georgia in two weeks’ time. We all wish you both health, happiness and love. Dear Nadia and Fathi, thank you very much for all your kindness and support.

We at MEI thank you for your comments, Ahmet, and we too wish Fathi belated birthday wishes.