I still haven’t developed the habit of writing much for social media, so the person I’m penning this about would probably freak out and start thinking something is off with me today! But sometimes the urge to write comes naturally.
Dr. Celia Shahnaz is a Professor of EEE at BUET and I first got to know her eight years ago through IEEE activities. Introducing her as my mentor and role-model would be a limiting statement, because I do get impressed and fall in love with strong female figures very easily. Fortunately for me, Dr. Celia has many aspects of identity I can choose from. Unfortunately for me, even choosing one or two and trying to stick to it would still produce a long ramble.
To me, Dr. Celia has been the most prominent, irreplaceable and leading energy in the IEEE Bangladeshi community for years. I have seen her design and develop things from scratch with sincerity – plans, events, conferences, relationships, teams, communities, visions and missions – all for the benefit of the IEEE member community, the nation and beyond. Surely, her actions speak louder than any of our words. Very hard to quantify her top achievements – but if I had to choose, I’d firstly mention how she popularized IEEE among the industry professionals in a permanent way. Even if we focus on one single unit – Women In Engineering Affinity Group of IEEE Bangladesh Section, we will see a fabulous and growing combination of academic and industry leaders and torchbearers. Secondly, I’ve observed her groom, inspire and encourage volunteers and leaders from not only across the diversity paradigm of industry and academia, but also public and private institutions and from all geographic areas of the country. We are proud to see how Bangladesh is a name in the IEEE community now, with membership mentioned in the same sentence as large countries with fantastic IEEE traditions such as India, USA, China and Canada.
Dr. Celia’s adaptive and innovative spirit and attitude were best demonstrated during the pandemic, when everything slowed down, but not IEEE Bangladesh activities. Rather, under Dr. Celia’s leadership, Bangladesh Section took bold steps to move all activities online efficiently and even leverage IEEE resources and reorient them towards seeking solutions for pandemic related problems. Soon, this energy trickled down to the student branches and I saw the student volunteers at my institution, North South University, inspired and continuing their activities on their own.
Dr. Celia has this immense, almost surreal, capacity to engage with anyone from the heart – from a young freshman to an IEEE Fellow. No matter how big a team someone is in, Dr. Celia would make that person feel as a very special contributor of the team, genuinely caring about individual needs and supporting individual career goals. It still amazes me and my IEEE colleagues how she, as a leader of the IEEE units (societies and affinity groups) at the national level, would be quick to get to know and make meaningful interactions with all student volunteers soon after a new committee is formed, remembering their names and understanding their personalities, sometimes even getting to know them in that detailed level faster than I could as their local supervisor! Sincerely embracing the philosophy of serving the community, Dr. Celia has made herself superbly accessible to anyone who has any interest in contributing to IEEE. Honestly, she is a true IEEE volunteer to the core, contributing at EVERY level. She’d be happy to give my student some encouraging and meaningful feedback on a random banner design, just as she’d be happy to sit with me and other colleagues to make year-long activity plan and strategy for some technical society or affinity group.
Dr. Celia’s tremendous volunteering spirit comes on the foundation of sound technical knowledge in her fields of expertise and an unmistakably genuine belief in the idea that an engineer must give back to her society. Inspired by her, I figured how to actively learn and avail the best from events on topics beyond my comfort zone. Inspired by her and Dr. Fattah, I got into humanitarian activities, always trying to find measurable impact of my engineering research. Inspired by her, my colleagues and I learned to provide enabling platforms in IEEE events for our young Bangladeshi professionals, invite local underrated talents and see them shine beyond our imagination. And she has taught us many more tangible and intangible things that I’ll be carrying through my career.
I wonder what this true IEEE soul (with a ceaseless supply of enthusiasm, not ebbed even for once since I first met her!) and amazing human being can do on a global platform. Dr. Celia is running for IEEE WIE Committee Chair-Elect 2022 along with some wonderful competitors. If you are an IEEE member, I’d request you to spend a few minutes and consider voting in this thrilling election through the following link which contains formal details of all candidates: www.ieee.org/elections.
I hope some day I get to inspire and guide my juniors like the way she does to me!