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El-Baz elected to National Academy of Engineering

Farouk El-Baz, a CAS professor and director of BU's Center for Remote Sensing, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He was nominated by Donald Fraser, an ENG professor and director of the Photonics Center, and an NAE member. Membership in the academy honors engineers and other professionals who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice" or who have shown "unusual accomplishment in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology."

Farouk El-Baz. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

El-Baz first gained international attention for his work on the Apollo space program, serving as secretary of the lunar landing site selection committee, chairman of the astronaut training group, and principal investigator for visual observations and photography. He worked for over a decade at the National Air and Space Museum and then was vice president of Itek Optical Systems of Lexington, Mass., before becoming director of BU's Center for Remote Sensing. Under his leadership, the center has been in the forefront of applying space technology to many fields of study that traditionally were earthbound, including searching for groundwater, the process of desertification, archaeology, and the environmental impact of different phenomena on large geographical regions. In 1997, NASA selected the facility as a Center of Excellence.

Founded in 1964, the NAE, with more than 2,000 peer-elected members and foreign associates, senior professionals in business, academia, and government, provides engineering leadership in service to the nation, directed "whenever called upon by any department or agency of the government to investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art."

8 March 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations