Professor Abdul Elezzabi (far right) with students.

Edmonton—Canada or Brazil? That’s the choice that ECE Professor Abdul Elezzabi had to make 25 years ago when he received a scholarship to study outside of his native Libya. He ultimately chose Canada, but Brazil would sneak up on him from time to time.

“Throughout the year I'd get postcards from my friends who went to Brazil. They'd be on the beach and I'd be up in Canada experiencing winter,” he said with a laugh. “But it came down to studying in English or Portuguese, and I figured English would be more valuable.”

Elezzabi is a recipient of a Killam Annual Professorship for the 2011-12 academic year. The award is based on scholarly activities such as teaching and research, as well as service to the community beyond the university. He’s been at the U of A for 16 years now, and noted that it was a Killam award that got him here.

“You know, I'm at the U of A because of the Killam award I received in 1996 as a post-doc. I used that money to buy my first laptop: an NEC, 82 megahertz.”

Since then, Elezzabi has received the U of A’s Rutherford Teaching Award, Faculty of Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award, became a Canada Research Chair, and helped establish the U of A chapter of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. But this most recent Killam award, and the awards that came before it, are about recognition more than anything else.

“It's not about the money, because it's not really significant. It's about the university and the Killam Foundation recognizing the contributions of the person they invested in. They're saying, ‘You're not just a person in the lab; we're aware of your presence here’.”

Even then, Elezzabi was quick to admit that receiving the award is not due to his efforts alone.

“I'm not going to take credit for the work my graduate students do. They make my research possible.”

That research currently focuses around ultrafast optics and nanophotonics. Specifically, light interaction and phenomenon at very small time scales—one quadrillionth of a second. Electrons don’t even move at these speeds.

“Interaction with light at this scale is very different,” he explained, noting that his work ranges from the practical, using laser pulses to perform single-cell therapy, to the theoretical, developing nanoscale electron execrators. His next big project is to tackle nerve regeneration.

“We can chop a single cell in to small pieces, perforate it, put DNA in it. So we have an idea for ‘welding’ nerves using a similar technique.”

Doing this high-level of research for nearly 15 years and also teaching requires a delicate balance, but Elezzabi said the key is to realize they compliment one another.

“My goal is to take a fourth-year undergraduate student and in three or four months get them to think like a junior graduate student. I want to get them in the lab doing things, because in the classroom you have boundaries — by the curriculum, by time.

“So it really is about bringing the two together as much as possible, and I really wouldn’t be happy doing only one or the other.”

But even with a strong commitment to academia, distractions do arise. Last year’s uprising in Libya weighed heavily on him.

“It wasn't an easy thing to go through,” he said about being away from home country and extended family during the revolution. “For almost eight months, I couldn't keep my mouth shut about it. But it was a different time. I'm not paid to be a freedom fighter.”

Still, Elezzabi did not idly sit by. He helped set up the Libyan-Canadian Friendship Association. They held rallies, spoke with the media, raised money, and sent over medical supplies. They're now trying to see if they can bring injured children from Libya to Canada to be treated by specialists.

“I can't imagine the effect on the people,” he said, adding that he plans to go back to Libya this summer for the first time since 2007.