MicroX Reports:
Millenium Evening: Egypt and Natural Resources
Dr. Farouk El-Baz
Location: The Residence of the American Ambassador to Egypt
Date: 15th May 1999
I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a very special event to be held at the residence of the American Ambassador to Egypt. The Millenium Evenings are set of lectures that the ambassador held at his home in Cairo and to which he invites distinguished scientists to talk about issues that would be the focus of the third millenium. The lecture given on the 15th of May, 1999 was given by Dr. Farouk El-Baz and focused on how remote sensing is being used in Egypt to discover groundwater in the deserts. The lecture was attended by several Egyptian government figures (including Dr. Ossama El-Baz, Dr. Farouk's brother), Egyptian scientists, American Embassy executives and of course the Ambassador himself and some of his personal friends. Also invited were six students to represent the Egyptian universities.
Dr. Hany Hamroush, a professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC), had the responsibility of selecting the six students to the evening. I was one of two students invited from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University who were also members of the Quark Society1 and IEEE Egypt Section members. The other students were two students from the AUC who were members of the Quark Society1, and two students from the IRIS Community at the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University.
1 The Quark Society for Undergarduate Research is a student society that was established at the AUC to promote scientific research in Egypt by arranging projects, trips and lectures and publishing some newletters and magazines. The Quark Society was started in 1997, and sadly ceased to exist at the end of 1999.
