On Sunday, Dec. 1, Osama Ettouney, professor emeritus in Miami’s Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department (MME), passed away at the age of 68 after a battle with cancer. 

Dr. Ettouney was an esteemed member of the higher education community. Receiving numerous student nominations as the “Outstanding Professor” and “Effective Educator,” he had a prestigious reputation in engineering education, recognized by students and colleagues alike.

Born in Cairo, he obtained his BS at Cairo Institute of Technology and then went on to earn his MS at MIT and Ph.D at the University of Minnesota.

Ettouney began his teaching career at Miami in 1986, and continued until his retirement in 2014. During that time, he served as the MME department chair from 1995 to 2010.

Though he was very involved in the teaching side of academia, Ettouney also dedicated his time to other aspects of education outside of his department. He was a member of multiple, university-wide committees, including Global Initiatives and STEM, and had always been a proponent of the Howe Writing Center.

Ettouney was also a published author of several books, including Portraits from Cairo of The 1970s, The Curse of Aida, and From Cairo to Cambridge with Love, forthcoming in 2020.

His passing brings great loss, but his memory lives on in every life he touched, including the Miami community.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 11:00 AM at the Miami University Sesquicentennial Chapel.  Donations in his memory may be given to the Thomas T. Peyton Educational Foundation at Miami University http://givetomiamioh.org/peyton-scholarship

By Jenna Calderón, CEC News Reporter