[1] He led the Department of Ecology and Marine Biology at the Saline Water Conversion Corporation Research and Development Centre, Saudi Arabia as chairman during 1993–2002.

[9] During his tenure, he initiated a plan to upgrade CUSAT to the status of IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology), but the project could not materialise due to a lack of understanding with the successive state governments and eventually, had to be shelved.

He was widely credited with bringing a turnaround in the academic fortunes of the university and got AMU to the 5th spot in the India Today rankings.

[11] He was instrumental and the key initiator in the launching of AMU centres in Murshidabad (West Bengal), Malapparum (Kerala) and Kishanganj (Bihar).

[14] During his tenure as VC of AMU, Prof Azis courted controversy, and was under the CBI scanner for alleged financial impropriety [15] related to 'travel concession for family, income tax payment from University funds and purchase of luxury cars".