Aftabhusain Patla
At St. Mary's General Hospital, on Monday, Jan. 29, 2007, with family and friends by his side, Dr. Aftab Patla, aged 54 years, passed away. Dr. Patla was an accomplished professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo. He arrived at the University of Waterloo in 1982 and devoted his research and teaching career to the study of health, aging, and human movement.
He earned degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1975 and a PhD from Simon Fraser University in 1982. During his academic career he served as executive editor of the Journal of Motor Behaviour, associate editor of the journal Gait and Posture, president of the Canadian Society of Biomechanics and the International Society of Posture and Gait Research and on the grant selection committees of NSERC and MRC.
He traveled extensively around the world to talk about his research and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and Pennsylvania State University. His passion for and creativity in research will live on through the many students he mentored.
Dr. Patla was a loving and devoted husband to Guilda Lavoie Patla; a dear brother to Shabbir and his wife Zohra, and their children Tasneem, Alisia, and Duraiya -- and her husband Salim Pacha and children Nurtuza and Akil; all of Pune, India.
