This morning was like any other day, thinking about how much writing that I could get done on a chapter about Climate Justice in Africa. An email comes from Leila Baccouche saying I don’t know if you have heard that my sister Aziza passed. I just looked at the screen in a daze trying to process the email. Naw this can’t be right, it can’t be, it just can’t be. She died on June 11, 2021, Leila said….still not processing or comprehending. Aziza was the one with the unbreakable spirit, the inspiration, the victor for those overcoming the odds- the Shero.
This can’t be true. So many conversations came to mind, and her voice to my ear…
“Yes We Can”;
“God Bless you”;
“MashAllah”;
“I feel my purpose”;
“I feel a little tired Dr. Jenkins, I just need to rest for a minute”;
“Vision and sight are not the same thing.”
The last time I saw Aziza was just before the COVID-19 Pandamic struck in February 2020 with her sister Leila. I had invited her to give a talk with the support from my Dean and several from across the college. She came and visited my METEO class on python and atmospheric data, spoke to the high school students from the EnvironMentors program, and gave a seminar. Sadly, we had lots of computer problems in running her PowerPoint. Didn’t really matter, because her presence and what she stood for was the most important thing.
Dr. Z or Aziza as I always called her was Seeking Vision. She had undergone many brain operations but was always hopeful and grateful for the physics -such as proton therapy that might help her one day regain vision.
I had first seen Dr. Z in the Physics department and she was doing video work to promote the department with Dr. Venable, who was the chair of the department at the time and spending time with Dr. Lindesay. I saw her walking Thirkield Hall with her white cane wondered what she was doing. She was making a film for the department on @howard…. what an odd things I thought. I didn’t know that she had worked for CNN and that her degree as a physicist made her a remarkable science reporter.
I became the chairperson of the physics department in 2007 and it was during that year that I because friends with Dr. Z. One of Howard’s Physics department’s finest undergraduates, Dr. Beth Brown was getting the telescope in working shape while she was a scientist at NASA Goddard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_A._Brown
One morning, the message came that she had suddenly died. It was then that we hired Dr. Z to do a short documentary on Dr. Brown’s life. I drove down to SW Virginia with Aziza and her cameraman Mike to interview Dr. Beth Brown’s parents. It was a moving experience with Dr. Z showing incredible professionalism and sensitivity with the interview. Part of the interview was shown at the National Society for Black Physicists meeting in Nashville in 2009. Even with that, Dr. Z was interview many of the community’s brightest scientists.
Dr. Z – Flying into the Hurricane
The next adventure with Dr. Z was her taping a hurricane flight with the multi-agency (NASA-GRIP/NOAA-IFEX/NSF-PREDICT) hurricane field experiment in 2010. I had gotten some funding from NSF for Aziza to make a film for the public describing the field campaigns. My graduate student at the time, Dr. Yaitza Luna-Cruz would be flying on the NASA DC-8 flights, while I was down in Barbados taking ozonesonde and radiosonde measurements related to passing hurricanes and tropical disturbances. Dr. Z and her crew — including Tarik went to Florida to participate in flights. Aziza wanted to go on the DC-8 flights to direct the film but there were safety concerns with her being legally blind. So she directed her crew about the filming while on board. Her vision to know how she wanted the film to turn out was amazing. She always reiterated… Vision is not about being sighted. Her team flew one of the NASA missions and they filmed it and spoke to scientists from various field campaigns. She also came to Barbados to film me taking measurements…I really didn’t want her to do it but she insisted.
Prior to the film coming out, Dr. Z interviewed me about hurricanes, on her program call @Howard which included the lack of people of color in the sciences, and the future of hurricanes. She is such a professional!! I love Aziza!!
But at last, the film came out and I was quite happy with the work of Dr. Z.
After I left Howard in 2015, we stayed in touch. Dr. Z would call me to find out about film opportunities. She told me that the struggle was multifold–her health–being hired as an African American filmmaker that was legally blind —and her respect as a scientist.
I think that while the world was moving into social media, Dr. Z was always tuning her craft, expanding her vision, and exploring new science topics. When she came to PSU last year, my spirit was raised. There was something really good, spiritual, and wholesome about being in the presence of Dr. Z. She said that she believed that she was getting closer to her purpose and also getting her eyesight back. I think that she found her purpose which was to inspire, now and in the future.
It’s hard to think about not seen Dr. Z again. Her talents will be missed but must be taken up by other young scientists who have an interest in filmmaking. We can honor Dr. Z by being better communicators to the public and to young people thereby inspiring them to consider the science journey and the life of the mind.
A sad day, but take heart. The spirit of Dr. Z- physicist, filmmaker and visionary will never die – and will only inspire future filmmakers.
God Bless you Dr. Z. and your family.
Mashallah.
You will be dearly missed but never forgotten.
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