Mulugeta Bekele
Mulugeta Bekele (born in 1947) is an associate Professor Physics at Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia. He completed his PhD in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, India in the year 1997 .He was the first Physics major student in all of Ethiopia and is being awarded the Andrel Sakharov prize by the American Physical Society for his efforts in contributing to physics.He is the president of Ethiopian Physical Society since October 1998 and an Associate Member of the Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, ITALY since May 1999.
Life and Career
Mulugeta was born in Arsi, Ethiopia in 1947.In 1970, he graduated in B.Sc at Haile Selassie I University (now Addis Ababa University), as the only physics student in his senior year there at the time, he was given the opportunity to go to Union College in Schenectady to complete his final year of class work.In 1972, he joined as graduate assistant in Addis Ababa University. He then went on to pursue M.Sc. in Physics University of Maryland, College Park in 1973.He went back home to Ethiopia as a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at Haile Selassie I University.
Mulugeta and the euthopian civil war: After the monarchy in Ethiopia was overthrown by a military regime - socialist for name sake; although it did nationalise banks, industry and land, it was far from being the encapsulation of people's aspirations. In 1974, the people's struggles which were taken up in the form of student movements, workers unions, and other representation of the common man in Ethiopia ended up in a ghastly phase of Ethiopian history. During this time, Mulugeta participated in the revolutions during the monarchical oligarchy, and post that against the military oligarchy.For his part in organizing the democratic movement, Bekele was thrown into prison (during the Mengistu’s regime), at first for nine months in 1978, and then for the six years from 1979 to 1985, where he suffered torture and deprivation at the hands of the brutal regime. After his release from prison in 1987 at the age of 39, he went back to teach at AAU.In 1991, he joined the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore,India and completed his Ph.D degree in Physics.In 1998,he earned the position of a Senor in Associate Membership of ICTP for six years.He was an elegant teacher who always brought in fresh perspective to everything.He is also one of the founding members of the Ethiopian Physical Society, and served for four years as its president.
Acheivements and Contributions
He played a key role in creating the PhD program in AAU. Mentored 20 undergraduates, 60M.Sc. and one PhD students in the areas of biophysics, dislocation dynamics and activated processes, vacancy diffusion in binary alloys, and molecular motors. His research is internationally supported by the International Program in Physical Sciences (IPPS) at Uppsala University, Sweden,and the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) at Trieste, Italy. For his tireless efforts in defense of human rights and freedom of expression and education anywhere in the world, and for inspiring students, colleagues and others to do the same, he is being awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize. Which will be presented at the APS March 2012 meeting in Boston, MA, February 27-March 2, 2012, at a special Ceremonial session. Dr. Mulugeta is the first African Physicist to receive such an honor.