Juan Oscar Azaret- NECC Physics and Electronics Professor

What do engineering and classical guitars have in common? Plenty if you ask engineering professor Juan Oscar Azaret who believes math, science, and music can intersect. Azaret is a trained engineer and classical guitarist, who is also a luthier, someone who makes and repairs string instruments. He brings an almost lyrical blend of engineering principles and classical guitar skills into his classrooms. “Both math and music are languages that require an ordered kind of thinking,” he says, “The similarities are there.” Azaret has been shaped as much by the engineering degrees he holds from Stanford and the University of Tennessee as by the musical memories of the Cuban guitar and the bluegrass of East Tennessee.

Home: North Andover

Profession: NECC physics and electronics Instructor/ electrical engineer; luthier

Hobbies: Board member and trustee – Boston Classical Guitar Society; fitness.

Last book read: Bacardi – and the Long Fight for Cuba, Tom Gjelten

Latest accomplishment:  Youngest child graduated college and is employed!

Quote: “Strange is our situation here upon earth.  Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, but sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.  From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know, that we are here for the sake of others … “   Albert Einstein

Profile:  I am a New England, Tennessee hillbilly, born in Cuba. I am fortunate to feel equally at home salsa dancing in Miami, hiking the hills of East Tennessee, or playing in the music conservatories of Boston.

Why I do what I do:  I love to dwell in the details of physical things. As a luthier and a STEM teacher the challenges are endless.  It’s exciting to share with my students a lifetime of experience in the high tech industry and to see them learning a profession, working hard to achieve, and rejoicing in being able to make sense of things.