أحمد محمد لبن Ahmad.M.Lbn
مؤسس ومدير المنتدى
عدد المساهمات : 49191
العمر : 72
 | | موضوع: Farouk El-Baz الأحد 13 نوفمبر 2011, 9:34 pm | |
| Farouk El-Baz
Farouk El-Baz (born January 2, 1938) is an Egyptian
American scientist who worked with NASA to assist in the
planning of scientific exploration of the Moon, including the selection of
landing sites for the Apollo missions and the training of astronauts in lunar
observations and photography.
Currently, El-Baz is Research Professor and
Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston
University, Boston
MA, U.S.A.
He is Adjunct Professor of Geology at the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of
the Geological Society of America Foundation, Boulder, CO, and a member of the
U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC.
Biography
He was born on January 2, 1938 in the Nile Delta
town of El Senbellawein. At the age of 20, he received
a B.Sc. in Chemistry
and Geology from Ain Shams University. In 1961, he received
a M.S. degree in Geology from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now Missouri University of Science and
Technology).
In 1964 he received a PhD in Geology from the Missouri University of Science and
Technology[1][2]
after conducting research in 1962-1963 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), Cambridge MA.
In 1989, he received an Honorary Doctor of Science
degree from the New England College, Henniker, NH; in 2002 a Professional Degree
from Missouri S&T; in 2003 an Honorary Ph.D. from Mansoura University in
Egypt; in 2004 a
Doctor of Laws degree from the American University in Cairo; and in 2004 an
Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Missouri
Post-Doctorate
El-Baz taught Geology at Assiut
University, Egypt
(1958–1960) and the University of Heidelberg,
Germany
(1964–1965).
He joined the Pan American - U.A.R. Oil Company in
1966, where he participated in the discovery of El-Morgan, the first offshore
oil field in the Gulf of Suez.
NASA
Al-Baaz (right) training Ronald Evans and Robert
Overmyer
From 1967 to 1972, El-Baz participated in the Apollo
Program as Supervisor of Lunar Science Planning at Bellcomm Inc., a
division of AT&T that conducted systems analysis for NASA. During these six
years, he was secretary of the Landing Site Selection Committee for the
Apollo lunar landing missions, Principal Investigator of Visual Observations
and Photography, and chairman of the Astronaut Training Group.
His outstanding teaching abilities were confirmed
by the Apollo astronauts. While orbiting the Moon for the first time during Apollo 15,
Command Module Pilot Alfred Worden said, "After the King's
[Farouk's nickname] training, I feel like I've been here before."[3]
Also during the Apollo program, El-Baz joined NASA
officials in briefing members of the press on the results of the lunar
missions. His ability to simplify scientific jargon made his remarks on the
program's scientific accomplishments often quoted by the media.
Post-Apollo
After the Apollo Program ended in 1972, El-Baz
joined the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC
to establish and direct the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum. At the same
time, he was elected as a member of the Lunar Nomenclature Task Group of
the International Astronomical Union.
In this capacity, he continues to participate in
naming features of the Moon as revealed by lunar photographic missions.
In 1973, NASA selected him as Principal
Investigator of the Earth Observations and Photography Experiment on the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), the
first joint American-Soviet space mission of July 1975.
Emphasis
was placed on photographing arid environments, particularly the Great Sahara of
North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, in
addition to other features of the Earth and its oceans.
Emphasizing the study of the origin and evolution
of arid landscapes, he collected field data during visits to every major desert
in the world.
One of his significant journeys took place soon
after the United States and China had normalized
relations in 1979, when he coordinated the first visit by American scientists
to the deserts of northwestern China.
The six-week journey was chronicled in the National Geographic and the Explorers Journal. His
research on the origin and evolution of the desert resulted in his election as
Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
From 1982 until he joined Boston University
in 1986, he was Vice President of Itek Optical Systems of Lexington MA. During
these years he supervised the utilization of the Space Shuttle's Large
Format Camera photographs.
During the past 20 years in his research at Boston University,
El-Baz utilizes satellite images to better understand the origin and evolution
of desert landforms.
He is credited with providing evidence that the
desert is not man-made, but the result of major climatic variations. His research
uncovered numerous sand-buried rivers and streams in the Sahara
based on the interpretation of radar images.
These former water courses lead into depressions
in the terrain, which he theorized must host groundwater.
His analysis of these data resulted in the
location of groundwater in the arid terrains of Egypt,
Oman and the United Arab
Emirates (U.A.E.), and perhaps Darfur in Sudan[4]
(unless it dried up)[5].
El-Baz was elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America, the Academy of Sciences
for the Developing World TWAS, and to the National Academy of Engineering
(USA).
In 1999, the Geological Society of America
Foundation (GSAF) established the "Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert
Research," to annually reward excellence in arid land studies. In 2007 the
GSAF also established the "Farouk El-Baz Student Research Award" to
encourage desert research.
He is married, has four daughters, and six
grandchildren. El-Baz is the brother of Osama El-Baz,
senior advisor to Egypt's
president Hosni Mubarak.
Additional
Notes
El-Baz piqued the interest of Biblical scholars
around the world with his announcement of the so-called Kuwait River. The idea
that a river once flowed across the deserts of Arabia, and somehow connected
with the Tigris
and/or Euphrates River, seemed far-fetched. Yet
evidence for such a river came from the satellite radar images taken during the
1994 mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavor.
Al-Baaz studied the images, and noticed that
traces of a defunct river that crossed northern Arabia from
west to east were visible beneath the sands, thanks to the ground-penetrating
capabilities of the radar technologies. He called it the Kuwait River (also
referred to as Wadi Al-Batin)for that is where it apparently
connected with the Euphrates or emptied into the Persian Gulf.
The popular science
fiction television program Star Trek: The Next Generation
featured a shuttlecraft named El-Baz.
In a National Geographic documentary film in 2002,
El-Baz proposed a new source for the shape of The Pyramids at Giza. El-Baz believes that the ancient
Egyptians chose to bury their dead in pyramid shaped structures because they
knew from an earlier nomadic life that monumental pyramidal landforms which
abound in the Western Desert of Egypt, and evade erosion.
In Episode 10 ("Galileo Was Right") of
the TV series From the Earth to the Moon,
(produced by Tom Hanks
for HBO),
his role in the training of the Apollo astronauts was featured in a segment
entitled "The Brain of Farouk El-Baz." He was portrayed by actor Isa Totah.
In 1978 Dr. Al-Baaz was appointed Science Adviser
to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
He was charged with the selection of regions for land reclamation in the desert
without detrimental affects on the environment. For his distinguished service,
President Sadat awarded him Egypt's
"Order of Merit - First Class."
He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards,
including: the Golden Door Award of the International Institute of Boston; the
Nevada Medal of the Desert Research Institute, and the Pioneer Award of the
Arab Thought Foundation.
Source
http://egycastle.blogspot.com
|
|
