USTHB English Speakers Magazine USTHB English Speakers Magazine 1st Edition | Page 10

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of an optics program dedicated
to research and education. This
resulted in the creation of the Optical
Science Center for Applied Research
better known as OSCAR. Today, this
Center employs faculty from some
of the best schools in the world and
is known for its focus on contributing
to finding solutions to real problems:
environment monitoring, disease
progression, data sciences, machine
learning, atomic clocks, imaging
and nanophysics. I am pleased
that people put their trust in me to
build a research center from the
ground up. It was a very enriching
experience. This takes tremendous
energy and is the result of the efforts
of the leadership within the State of
Delaware, including two governors,
presidents and administrators of the
University, industry leaders, staff, and
a wonderful team of researchers
who believed in the vision I put forth
before them.
Recently, I felt the need to live a
different experience. The opportunity
to lead a well-established College, the
Kennedy College of Sciences of the
University of Massachusetts Lowell, is
a wonderful one. I am happy to take
this new challenge for many reasons.
First, the University of Massachusetts
Lowell draws on the multiple cultures,
history and creativity of Lowell which
is itself the birthplace of the Industrial
Revolution. It is one of the ten fastest
growing research universities in
the nation, and the second fastest
growing university in the country. As
the Dean of the Kennedy College of
Sciences, I have the opportunity to
have a broader impact on the future
of science while at the same time
continue my own research with new
collaborators. This move is part of the
continuum that I described earlier.
3-Have you ever faced any obstacles
during your educational path? If yes,
what are they?
Like many students in Algeria or
anywhere else in the world, I have
encountered obstacles. I do not know
anyone who does not encounter an
obstacle of some sort. It is part of
our journey. The key is to know how
to respond to the challenge. I have
already mentioned some of the
challenges I faced by leaving home
and going away to study: first to a
boarding school in El Harrach, then to
a University abroad, and eventually
to the USA, a country that I hardly
knew. However, I do remember one
major challenge that had an impact
on me to a point where I almost
stopped my studies. This occurred
while I was a student at USTHB. At
the time, students traveling to the
University from its East (to be more
precise East of Dar El Beida) faced
a serious transportation problem.
We were caught in a dilemma
because we could not benefit
from student housing offered by
the University supposedly because
we lived too close to the University
while at the same time we could
not take advantage of the train
service because its route, limited to
Algiers-Dar El Beida, did not serve
us. Needless to say other means
of traveling to the university were
far from being satisfactory.In other
words, getting to the University was
a real challenge and often many of
us missed classes or arrived very late.
Unfortunately and sadly, for many
students, and in particular women,
the solution to this problem came
entirely too late as they had already
decided not to pursue a University
degree.
4-What do you think of Algeria’s
research’s level? And how can the
government improve it?
It is hard to answer this question
without having data and accurate
information. We have a relatively
young population and a country
that is often characterized as rich
in