Former Ambassador and Saudi Businesswoman Join Board of Trustees

   Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Daniel C. Kurtzer and Saudi Arabian businesswoman Basma Alireza were recently appointed as members of AUC’s Board of Trustees.

   Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, served as U.S. ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001. During 29 years of public service, Kurtzer held a number of senior policy and diplomatic positions, including U.S. ambassador to Israel, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and principal deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research. Since leaving government service, Kurtzer has authored numerous articles on U.S policy in the Middle East. He served as an adviser to the Iraq Study Group and currently serves on the Advisory Council of the American Bar Association’s Middle East North Africa Rule of Law Initiative. He is the co-author, with Scott Lasensky, of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace:American Leadership in the Middle East, published in 2008. He also serves on a number of business and public service boards.

   B. Boyd Hight, chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees, noted that the board continues to strengthen its ranks with distinguished members drawn from public service and business professions in Egypt, the region and the world. “The appointment of someone of Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer’s caliber represents a valuable addition to our board and will play a vital role in advancing AUC’s goal to become a leading global university,” Hight said. “All of us on the board are extremely pleased to welcome him as a trustee as he joins the AUC community at this time of extraordinary transition in the life of the university.”

   Alireza serves as director of Rezayat Investment Company, a diversified international enterprise based in Saudi Arabia. She is also the co-founder of Blossom Mother and Child, a brand focusing on high-quality products for maternity and baby needs with retail and wholesale operations in Europe and the Middle East. In addition, she is the founder and trustee member of Al-Madad Foundation, a charity organization committed to increasing intercultural awareness to help alleviate problems of poverty and exclusion, with a focus on the Middle East.

   Hight stated that Alireza will provide unique counsel to the board due to her professional and philanthropic practice. “Ms. Alireza’s professional experience will provide the board with additional expertise in legal, financial, philanthropic and civic matters,” he said. “She will play a vital role in advancing AUC’s mission to serve the community and the region, as well as its vision to become a leading global university.”

Obama Names Zewail to Council of Advisors on Science

   Ahmed Zewail, AUC trustee and Nobel laureate, was recently named by President Barack Obama to the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

   The new 20-member council, which includes three Nobel laureates, two university presidents and four MacArthur Fellows, will advise the president and vice president, and formulate policy in the fields of energy, education, health, climate change, environment, security and the economy. In making the announcement, Obama noted, “The days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over.”

   Zewail is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he is also director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology. He joined Caltech in 1976, and today he is also the director of Caltech’s Laboratory for Molecular Sciences. In 1999, Zewail was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Later that year, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak bestowed on him the Order of the Grand Collar of the Nile, Egypt’s highest honor.

   Zewail has received more than 50 prizes, awards, special honors and honorary degrees from 35 universities around the world. These include the Nobel Prize, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Robert A.Welch Award, the Leonardo da Vinci Award of Excellence, the Wolf Prize and the King Faisal Prize.

Ministry Approves Petroleum Engineering

   Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education recently approved the Bachelor of Science in petroleum engineering.

   AUC’s Department of Petroleum and Energy Engineering was launched in 2007 after the program was fully endorsed by the university’s senate, the president and the Board of Trustees. Last year, a protocol was signed between AUC and Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi, supporting the new department and major. “There is definitely a very strong demand for qualified petroleum engineers not only in the local market, but also in the regional and global markets,” said Magdi Nasrallah, professor and founding chair of the department.

    AUC’s five-year program combines the study of petroleum engineering, gas technology and alternative energy resources such as solar, wind, fuel cell and nuclear technologies. The curriculum structure is designed to accommodate shifts in technologies toward alternative energy resources in light of the steady depletion of oil reserves. Graduates of the program are also exposed to environmental issues related to the industry and trained to develop solid communication and information technology skills.

Former Ambassador to Head New School of Public Affairs

   AUC alumnus and former Egyptian Ambassador Nabil Fahmy ’77, ’80
has been named to serve as dean of the university’s newly established School of Public Affairs.

   Fahmy was Egypt’s ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2008. “We are enormously fortunate to have recruited a founding dean with energy, experience, vision and commitment,” said AUC President David Arnold. “With Ambassador Fahmy leading this school, his mere presence at its helm signals our ambitions, and I am confident that he is the individual who will ensure that those ambitions are realized.”

   At the outset, the School of Public Affairs will offer undergraduate degrees in journalism and mass communication and graduate degrees in public policy, management and law. Additional degree programs, particularly in international policy and practice, are slated to be added over the next several years.

   Dean Fahmy is not new to AUC, having received his Bachelor of Science in physics/mathematics and his Master of Arts in management from the university. Capping a distinguished career in diplomacy over the years, he has been a member of the Egyptian Missions to the United Nations (disarmament and political affairs) in Geneva and New York. He has also served as Egypt’s ambassador to Japan and political adviser to the foreign minister. Fahmy has written extensively on Middle East politics, development and peacemaking, as well as regional security and disarmament.

   Looking forward to the challenge of starting the new school at AUC, Fahmy stated that he will draw on faculty and programs that are already in place at the university. “With half of the region’s population below 25 years of age, academic institutions have a singular contribution to make in shaping the direction of the Middle East,” he said. “As we establish this new school, it is important to recognize the talents and ambitions of the current AUC faculty in the departments of law, journalism and mass communication, and public policy and management. These departments have a youthful international faculty with great ambitions and enormous energy and commitment.”

   In addition to the public affairs school, a new School of Business has also been established, encompassing the management and economics departments.