Volume 11, Number 4, 2003
I smat Shah, associate professor of materials science in the College of Engineering, had no idea his life was about to change on Sept. 11, 2001.
The quiet and soft-spoken faculty adviser of UD's Muslim Students' Association, who also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shah was suddenly thrust into the limelight on campus and beyond. Almost overnight, as people questioned the Muslim religion in light of the terrorist attacks, there were occasions to discuss his faith at every turn.
While the situation was unplanned and a little unnerving at first, Shah says, he embraced the opportunities. He has organized the community's interest and support of the Afghan people into a local relief organization that has built an elementary school for Muslim girls in a refugee camp on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
"My life did change after 9/11," he says. "I now consider myself a representative of the Muslim faith. In public, I am very conscious of the fact that I am a Muslim and I need to be a certain way. I feel more responsibility now than before.
"My wife and I joke that since 9/11, I have given more talks about what it is like to be a Muslim than academic talks. But, I enjoy it very much and welcome every opportunity to educate people."
Most of his talks have been delivered in Christian churches, with a basic message: "Before you criticize a person of another faith, you need to know what that faith stands for," he says. "Don't start throwing stones until you know what you are throwing stones at."
Independently, Shah always has done what he can to alleviate the immense poverty of his native Pakistan, where he returns each summer to teach at a special summer college.
"In Pakistan, as in Afghanistan, the poverty is so great, there is a need for everything," he says. "Anything we can do is just a drop in the bucket, but we try to do what we can. These are people who live off the random acts of mercy others can provide."
In the past, he has assisted numerous families in raising dowries for young women, and he has contributed money to educational efforts. Additionally, he has helped approximately 14 young Pakistanis enroll at UD to study in various departments in engineering, physics and math. Most of those students found their first U.S. home with Shah and his family near Newark, Del. Two young women lived with the family as exchange students for a year and still correspond with Shah, whom they call "Babba," the Urdu word for father.
Shah's efforts to start a school in the refugee camp began when he gave a post-9/11 talk to the Creative Grandparenting organization in Wilmington, Del. Members of the group approached him to discuss ways to help the Afghan people.
"While they were hoping to go into Kabul to help, we also discussed the idea of doing something for people in the refugee camps in Pakistan," Shah says. "From a practical standpoint, it was nearly impossible to get into Kabul."
While that group eventually did end up financially supporting an existing school in Kabul, others in the community wanted to do more, Shah says. Soon, Afghanistan/Delaware Communities Together (AFDECT) was formed.
Working with friends who were educated in the United States and who have returned to live in Pakistan, Shah toured the Jalozai Camp near Peshawar and observed its terrible poverty firsthand. The camp is home to some 150,000 people, many of whom have lived there for the past 16 years since an earlier war forced them to flee Afghanistan. The children who have been born there have never known any other home. Neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan officially recognizes the camp, which does not get any government aid. It is as if the four-square-mile camp of mud houses--traversed by an open drainage ditch that is the only source of water, sewer and recreation for the children--does not exist, Shah explains.
"As we were looking at the camp and all the misery that goes with it, we were able to determine that one of the biggest needs is education for young girls," he says.
The organization built a school, catering to girls in grades one through five, which opened last fall. The five-room building has brick floors, mud walls and a thatched roof. Fans help to cool temperatures that can reach 117 degrees.
Approximately 300 girls are able to attend, a fraction of those who need schooling, Shah notes. The students are provided with clothing and one meal a day. Other refugees have been hired to teach, prepare the meals and make the clothes.
Shah visited the camp in July and plans to return this summer.
"There is so much to do," he says. "It is hard to even celebrate these small successes. And, actually, living conditions in Pakistan are not that much better. It is a very touching reality. We all need to do what we can."
Shah earned his bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Karachi in Pakistan. He earned his doctorate in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also worked as a postdoctoral fellow.
In 1987, he went to work as a senior research scientist for the DuPont Co. During that time, he also served as an adjunct professor at UD in physics and astronomy. In 1999, he became an associate professor and a member of the College of Engineering's Center for Catalytic Science and Technology. During summers, he works as the manager of nanostructured materials for Fraunhofer Inc. in the nearby Delaware Technology Park.
His research specialties include nanostructured material synthesis, characterization and applications, energetic condensation for the deposition of polycrystalline silicon films on low-temperature substrates and the development of sputtering sources for unique applications. He also works in electron field emission, hard and protective coatings, organic-inorganic interfaces and dielectric materials. He has published numerous scholarly articles and advised several graduate students.
For more information on AFDECT, contact Shah at [ismat@udel.edu].
-Beth Thomas