Egypt lost a pioneer in environmental science
calendar_monthMarch 25, 2012
HEPCA is mourning the loss of ninety one year old professor of botanic and environmental science Prof Mohammed Abd E-lfattah El-Kassas. He was the first Arab scientist to hold a position as the leader of the'' international union of conservation of nature and natural resources'' in the period between 1978 and 1984. He was born at Borg El Brollus Baltim center in 1921. Prof El-Kassas graduated in the faculty of science at Cairo University in 1944, with an excellent honorary degree. He finished his master degree in 1947 and his PhD from Cambridge University in 1950. During his career he received many scientific honors and awards from national and international bodies; from Egypt, Sudan, UAE and Sweden and the Netherlands. He won the United Nations Environment Award in 1978 and the Nile in Science in 2008. Prof: El-Kassas created his own scientific school in the fields of desert’s environmental research, from which many Egyptian and Arab researchers acquired their masters and PhD. He participated in the establishment of environmental maps in the Mediterranean. One of many of his important work includes “the Nile in Danger”. He recorded his scientific autobiography in the book "Footsteps in the twentieth century and beyond" and in the Encyclopedia of Geography under the name of "desertification". The contributions of Dr. El-Kassas are one of the greatest in the field of environmental conservation on the international and Arab level.
