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Dr. A. Kadir Aziz (1929-2016) was a Professor in the CDepartment of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, (UMB). Dr. Aziz earned his B.S from Wilson Teachers College in 1952, and continued on to earn his M.S from George Washington University in 1954. Finally, he received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of Maryland, in 1958. Dr. Azizs' dissertation on Higher Order Boundary Value Problems for Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations in Two and Three Variables, was done under the guidance of Dr. Joaquin Diaz. Dr. Kadir Aziz would spend the next fifty eight years of his life dedicated to teaching as well as advancing the field of numerical analysis of partial differential equations. In March of 2016, at the age of ninety two, Dr. Aziz passed away and is survived by his wife and stepdaughters.

Dr. Aziz Background Life
Abdul Kadir Aziz was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in March of 1923. Since his father was an Afghan ambassador, he spent his early years in Paris. In the 1940's Aziz and his family moved to Washington, DC, due to a reassignment of his father. It was here that he began his journey to further his education.

Employment and Awards
Upon receiving his Ph.D., Dr.Aziz took a faculty position at Georgetown University. In 1963, Dr. Kadir Aziz was promoted to Professor of Mathematics, and in the next year he was appointed Chairman of the Mathematics Department. In 1967, Dr. Aziz began his career with UMBC as one of the original College of Sciences faculty members. He also took up the role of Adjunct Research Professor at the Institute for Physical Science and Technology at University of Maryland College Park, (UMCP). While acting in these roles, Dr. Aziz was an integral part in the foundation of what is now the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of UMBC. At UMCP one of the main focuses of Dr. Aziz research was the numerical analysis of partial differential equations. Through his research, Dr. Aziz became a pioneer of what is known today as the Finite Element Method (FEM). The FEM is a tool that is widely used today in applications with physics, engineering, and other sciences. In 1972, UMBC hosted the first ever international conference on FEM. At the completion of the conference, Dr. Kadir Aziz co-wrote and edited a book, which would later become a standard reference in the study of FEM and would inspire the field's future development. Over the course of his career, Dr. Kadir Aziz would recieve grants from the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Department of Energy, and the Naval Surface Weapons Center, all in support of his research. Dr. Aziz also supervised the dissertations of 14 doctoral students between his time with the three universities.

His Legacy
In 1989, Dr. Aziz retired from UMBC. A decade later, Dr. Aziz donated money to UMBC and UMCP to establish The Aziz Lecture Series. The Aziz Lecture Series allows mathematicians to come to the UMCP campus and give lectures on differential equations, numerical analysis, and other related topics. The Aziz Lectured have been held annually ever since they were established, and are widely respected and anticipated by the UMCP community.