Maverick Science mag 2013-14

Fazleev continued from page 6
for university studies. A gifted athlete, he enjoyed
swimming, rowing and track, and also attended
music school where he learned to play piano and
violin. He also enjoyed playing chess.
His father convinced him to focus on academics
over music in college, and he enrolled at Kazan
State University, a prestigious Russian college
founded in 1804. He studied theoretical physics
and mathematics, earning B.S. and M.S. degrees
and graduating summa cum laude. In 1978 he became
an assistant professor at Kazan, and in 1981,
he completed work on his Ph.D. in Theoretical and
Mathematical Physics.
After spending a year at UT Arlington he returned
to Kazan, where he rose through the academic
ranks to the position of professor and
associate dean of the physics department, which
consisted of 500 faculty members. He also became
a leading authority in the dynamics of magnetic
systems. In addition, it was at Kazan where he met
his wife, Rezeda. They were married in 1988.
Dr. Fazleev might have spent the rest of his career
at Kazan, but momentous events intervened
and changed the course of his future. In the midto-late
1980s, the Soviet Union’s economy was in
bad shape, and many citizens of its member republics
began demanding greater freedom. Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev instituted a policy of
glasnost, or political liberalization, emboldening
many who sought change and helping pave the way
for the eventual dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in December
1991.
At the time, Dr. Fazleev was in the United States
on a Senior Fulbright Lectureship studying theoretical
physics at UCLA. With his homeland in political
turmoil and economic crisis, he made the
decision to move permanently to the United States.
His wife joined him and in 1992 he returned to UT
Arlington, where he became an internationally recognized
expert in the theory of positrons at the surfaces
of solids – knowledge important to
understanding electronic properties of metals and
semiconductors.
Fry recalled Dr. Fazleev’s love of the outdoors
and of traveling. The Frys and Fazleevs spent many
summer vacations together in the Rocky Mountains
in Colorado.
“He loved trout fishing in the streams and backpacking
up high in the mountains,” Fry said. “He
was exceptionally strong at high altitude. He also
loved eating freshly caught trout. Na’il also enjoyed
sitting around the campfire and absorbing our culture
through the tall tales told there.”
Weiss treasures the times he spent with Dr. Fazleev
attending conferences in places like Japan
and England. At Dr. Fazleev’s encouragement, they
took in the local sights on hikes when time allowed.
“I remember we were in Australia and went hiking,
and we saw koala bears and wallabies and all
kinds of things,” Weiss said. “It was a fantastic trip.
We often shared hotel rooms and we were a bit like
the characters in ‘The Odd Couple’ - Na’il was the
neat one.”
Dr. Fazleev wrote over 120 peer-reviewed journal
articles and two books, and gave over 80 invited
talks at international conferences, universities and
national labs. He supervised six doctoral and 11
master’s students.
His wife, Rezeda Fazleeva, 54, died in a plane
crash on November 17 in Kazan, Russia, where she
had been traveling to visit with family following her
husband’s death. She was born July 12, 1959, in
Kazan and earned a B.S. from Kazan Trade and
Economy College; a master’s in economics and
management from Moscow State University of
Trade and Economics; and an M.S. in education
from Kazan State University.
Dr. Fazleev and his wife are survived by a son,
Kamil Fazleev, of Moscow, Russia. Dr. Fazleev is
also survived by a sister, Raviya Denisov, of St. Petersburg,
Russia. Mrs. Fazleev is survived by her
mother, Risalia Kaiumova.
A scholarship is being established in memory of
Dr. Fazleev. Donations may be sent to the UT Arlington
College of Science, c/o Na’il Fazleev Scholarship
Fund, P.O. Box 19047, Arlington, TX
76019-0047.
Tribute w Frank N. Huggins (1926-2013)
Math professor was proud
of his roots in West Texas
Frank Norris Huggins, a former UT Arlington professor of
mathematics, died on July 10, 2013 at Beacon Hill Care Facility
in Denison. He was 86.
A funeral service was held July 15 in Zephyr, Texas.
Dr. Huggins was born on October 25, 1926 in Zephyr. He
served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Following the
war, he married Caroline Bradshaw on
December 16, 1946 in Brownwood. He
earned a bachelor’s degree from
Howard Payne University, a master’s
from the University of North Texas
and a Ph.D. from UT Austin in 1967.
He taught mathematics at Texas A&M,
UT Austin and UT Arlington. He published
numerous papers and a book,
and was an expert in bounded slope
variation.
Huggins
“He was a West Texan through and through,” said Larry
Heath, a professor emeritus in math who had an office next
to Dr. Huggins in Hammond Hall in the 1970s. “He wore his
ten-gallon hat, cowboy boots, and a black suit with a tie
(generally a string tie) every day. He had a big, booming
West Texas voice and wanted to talk about Texas history and
the UT Austin math department.”
Dr. Huggins was of the Baptist faith and was an ordained
deacon since 1963. He was an avid reader and had an extensive
book collection among other valued collections.
His wife of 66 years, Caroline Bradshaw Huggins, of Arlington,
died Nov. 10, 2013 at age 86. He was preceded in
death by his parents, Oscar and Ida Oma Huggins; and siblings,
Oscar James Flurnoy, Gwendola Pearl and Rector
Howard.
He is survived by his extended family: sister-in-law,
Dorothy Bradshaw of Edmond, Okla.; and sister-in-law, Mary
Loyce Bradshaw McWilliams and her husband, Willis, of
Kingston, Okla.; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, great
nieces and nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews.
Rubins continued from page 7
new realms of research,” Fry said. “Roy knew what parameters
should be set, and how to analyze the obtained
data. He was part experimentalist and part theoretician.
Roy could also write very definitive papers in excellent
English, while Truman struggled to put down his
thoughts in an orderly fashion.”
The pair collaborated on numerous electron magnetic
resonance (EMR) papers on transition metal ions
in both inorganic and organic crystals, and on linearchain
magnetic compounds. Alex Weiss, professor and
department chair, said that the duo’s individual
strengths combined to allow them to produce important
and influential work.
“They had a long record of highly productive collaboration,”
Weiss said. “Their characteristics and contributions
were truly unique and truly complementary —
making for perhaps the optimum in true collaboration
where the whole is much greater than just the sum of
the parts.”
Dr. Rubins was born in Manchester, England, on
Nov. 11, 1935. During World War II, he and his family
often had to take refuge in air-raid shelters due to intense
bombing of industrial Manchester by the German
Luftwaffe. He scored high enough on his college entrance
exams to be admitted to Oxford University,
where he received a scholarship to study physics and
earned a B.A. in 1957. He remained at Oxford for graduate
studies, doing research in electron paramagnetic
8 Maverick Science 2013-14
resonance and earning a master’s degree and a Ph.D.
in physics from St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, in 1961.
After finishing his doctoral studies, Dr. Rubins traveled
and did postdoctoral research at Hebrew University
in Jerusalem; the Battelle Institute in Geneva,
Switzerland; Syracuse University in New York; and
UCLA. He interviewed for a faculty position at UT Arlington
in 1969 and joined the physics department as
an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate
professor in 1971 and to professor in 1982.
He put as much if not more effort into his teaching
as he did research. He was named the 1998 College of
Science Teacher of the Year and that same year was
elected to UT Arlington’s Academy of Distinguished
Teachers, where he served through 2003.
Weiss said that Dr. Rubins constantly worked to update
and improve his courses and prepared material for
them well in advance. “I remember Roy working on his
notes for a graduate thermodynamics course in the
physics library while we were waiting for a meeting to
start, and being amazed that he was working almost a
year ahead on his notes,” Weiss said. “I was usually
working on the next day’s lecture, and here he was
working a year ahead.”
He served at different times both as graduate and
undergraduate advisor and was a longtime chair of the
department’s undergraduate curriculum committee.
Religion and family were also very important to Dr.
Rubins. He was a member of Congregation Beth
Shalom in Arlington – his parents emigrated from
Poland to England, where their surname, Rubinski, was
anglicized to Rubins. He and his wife, Patricia, celebrated
their 50th wedding anniversary on September 8,
2013, and he was a doting grandfather. He had various
hobbies which he savored, including folk dancing and
making amateur films. He was very active and enjoyed
sports, including tennis, volleyball and his great passion,
soccer, which he played from an early age.
“Roy was an excellent athlete. In his prime he would
jog 10 miles in one day,” said Fry, who was his frequent
tennis partner. “I don’t think he ever ran a marathon,
but he could have. He stayed in shape.”
He coached the UT Arlington soccer team along with
fellow Englishman Ed Bellion, now a professor emeritus
in chemistry. Dr. Rubins also played on various club
and physics department teams and served as faculty
sponsor of the university’s Soccer Club from 1970-78.
His love of dancing led him to serve as faculty sponsor
of the UTA International Folkdance Club from 1971-76.
The club, composed of UTA faculty and students, gave
workshops and performed at events around the Metroplex.
“Roy had a mellow personality, was self-secure, and
enjoyed people,” Fry said. “I never heard him say anything
bad about anybody, even when they deserved it.
He was a jewel in the department that was not admired
nearly often enough.”
Survivors include his wife, Patricia; son, Daniel and
daughter-in-law, Rita; and grandchildren, Rachel and
Amy Rubins of Lansdale, Pa.