Zaki Bassiouni, SPE, age 83, passed away on 8 July 2026. Until his retirement in 2008, he served as dean of the Louisiana State University (LSU) College of Engineering. Bassiouni joined LSU as an assistant professor. In 1983, he became chair of the LSU Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering, a position he held until his promotion to dean in June 2004. He was inducted into the LSU College of Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2012.
An SPE member since 1974, he became a Life Member in 2008. He received the 1995 SPE International Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty and the 2006 SPE International Formation Evaluation Award. He served on several SPE committees including the Education and Accreditation Committee, Student Development Committee, Colloquium on Petroleum Engineering Education, Cedric K. Ferguson Medal Committee, and the Formation Evaluation Award Committee. He was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2004–2005 and again in 2008–2009. He also served as an officer for both the SPE Evangeline and SPE Delta sections.
He coauthored SPE 110986 Experimental and Statistical Analysis of Shaly-Sand Evaluation Using CEC-Dependent Parameters.
He held a BS in petroleum engineering from Cairo University, a diploma in geophysics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pétrole et des Moteurs (Paris), and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Lille, France.