Mustafa Abushagur received his B.S. from Tripoli University in Libya. He then came to the California Institute of Technology for M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

In 2004, he was elected a Fellow of OSA “In recognition of contributions to optical signal processing and fiber telecommunications, and for pioneering engineering academic programs.” Then, in 2013, he received OSA’s Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award “for leadership in education and entrepreneurship, which led to establishment of important programs, institutions and companies devoted to developing optics in the United States, the Middle East and North Africa.