Three faculty members to represent PFW in Bangladesh

Because of his success as a biology professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne, Ahmed Mustafa is renowned for his addiction, physiology, aquatic biology, and pharmacology classes. His aquatic life lab research, which centers on preventing diseases with alternatives to drug therapy, is among the most popular on campus.

But Mustafa is possibly even more revered in his home country of Bangladesh, though he moved to North America in 1995 and started teaching at PFW in 2001. Over the last decade, Mustafa has developed a relationship with Daffodil International University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, visiting almost annually whenever he visits his family. In 2022, Mustafa was honored as “A True Friend of Daffodil International University.”

Representatives of Daffodil have also visited PFW, including early in the recent spring semester when Emran Hossain, chief executive officer, came to Fort Wayne for a day. On behalf of Sabur Khan, chairman of the board of trustees, Hossain then invited Mustafa to make an official visit and bring colleagues.

On June 24, Ron Friedman, dean of the College of Science, and Farah Combs, Honors Program director and senior lecturer in Arabic, will leave with Mustafa to represent PFW at Daffodil, the top private university in Bangladesh. Among other plans, Friedman will present a keynote speech on faculty development, and Combs will help the school develop its own Honors Program. Combs has already met virtually with Daffodil representatives to start the process.

“It is not common for a dean to receive an invitation to visit an international university, and I did not want to miss the opportunity to further build bridges between PFW and Daffodil International University,” Friedman said. “Additionally, I am looking forward to sharing this experience with my colleagues.”

This will also be Combs’ first time representing PFW in another country.

“I am looking forward to the whole experience working with an international university on an administrative role level,” Combs said. “This is a unique opportunity, and I am proud of it. This is the first time someone asked me to share my experience to help them build an actual program like an Honors Program. This is an incredible honor, and I will make sure to follow up with them as they resume their progress to establish a successful Honors Program.”

Friedman's address will center around techniques from PFW’s Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching. The audience already has some understanding of CELT, as Mustafa and his siblings—all college graduates—helped to establish the Tazkera and Golam Mustafa Center for Teaching and Learning at Daffodil in 2022 to honor their parents. The center follows the CELT example.

Friedman and Combs will also participate in a Q&A with students and give other presentations while Mustafa will deliver five presentations, including a 30-minute speech detailing his academic journey, his current research, and accomplishments.

“Every time I visit them, I make time to go and give a talk,” Mustafa said. “One time I talked about the management of time and stress, and another I talked about the power of etiquette, teaching, and research ethics.”

Outside official duties, Mustafa will take his colleagues to the city of Cox’s Bazar to see the world’s longest sandy beach, provide an area tour, and encourage his colleagues to try native dishes.

“I’ll take care of them,” Mustafa said. “It is my home country, and we are good friends. I’m going to show them a different world. They have never been to Asia, and people living in the Western Hemisphere usually have no clue about the Eastern Hemisphere.

“As soon as you land there, you see millions of people. It’s crowded, but the food and the people are so vibrant and hospitable they won’t believe it. They will honor them so much. They will be impressed.”

Because of the dense population, Mustafa said a five-mile car ride may last a half-hour to an hour.

“They’ll come back with rich memories of culture, education, and hospitality,” Mustafa said. “They are going to stay in the richer part of the city, protected, but when I take them out into the city, they’ll see the other side of the world.”