List of Cairo University Alumni - 1980s

1980s

• Mustafa al'Absi is a professor of behavioral medicine and neuroscience at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He was born in Yemen. He received his undergraduate psychology degree from Cairo University in 1985. He also received doctoral training in biological and clinical psychology at the University of Oklahoma. He currently directs multiple behavioral medicine research programs. He has received several honorary awards, including the Herbert Weiner Early Career Award and the Neal E. Miller Young Investigator Award. He has published more than 80 scientific articles, chapters, and edited books. He served as an editor or on editorial boards of multiple journals. He has also assumed leadership positions in several national and international organizations.

• Taher Elgamal is a cryptographer and inventor of the Elgamal crypto algorithm. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University in 1977, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1984. He served as chief scientist at Netscape Communications from 1995 to 1998.

• Mohamed Osman Elkhosht is a professor of philosophy of religion and contemporary philosophy at Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. He is also a cultural advisor and a leading authority on modern Islam.

• Rafik Habib (born 1959; graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Psychology section, 1982), Christian (Coptic) Egyptian researcher, activist, author, and politician.

• Ahmed E. Kamal is an engineering professor at Iowa State University. He was born in Giza, Egypt. He earned his B.Sc. in electrical engineering in 1978 and his M.Sc. in 1980, both from Cairo University. After graduation, he won the Connaught Fellowship to the University of Toronto, where he earned two more electrical engineering degrees: his M.A.Sc. in 1982 and Ph.D. in 1986.

• Tarek Kamel is the Minister of Communication & Information Technology since 2005. Dr. Kamel obtained a Bachelor's degree in 1985 and a Master's degree in 1988 from the Communications & Electronics Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.

• Ibrahim A. Karawan is the Director of the Middle East Center and an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. Between 1995 and 1997 he was the Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies and Directing Staff Member at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, IISS, in London. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for International Studies at Oxford University and a Fellow at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He is a former Senior Research Associate at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. He began attending Cairo University at the age of 16, majoring in economics and political science. Upon graduation, he worked for the Egyptian Army's Aid Defense System.

• Mahmoud Mohieldin the Minister of Investment in Egypt.

• Jehan Sadat was the second wife of Anwar Sadat and served as first lady of Egypt from 1970 until Sadat's assassination in 1981. She is a Senior Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park and won the Pearl S. Buck award in 2001. She earned her B.A. (1977), M.A. (1980) and PhD (1986) degrees from Cairo University.

• Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943-2010) was an Egyptian academic and civil rights activist. He earned his PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies from Cairo University in 1981. He opposed the use of Islam for political ends in his 1992 book Naqd al-khitab al-dini (Critique of Religious Discourse). As a result, a Cairo court forced him to divorce his wife, Cairo University faculty member Ibtihal Yunis in 1995. After 1996, he and his wife fled Egypt and settled in The Netherlands, where he works at State University of Leiden. Source: "Abu Zayd, Nasr Hamid." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 3 December 2004 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9345158.