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Biography |
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Since 1986, Dr. Farouk El-Baz has served as Research Professor and Director of the Boston
University Center for Remote Sensing, and Adjunct Professor in its Departments of Archaeology and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also serves as Faculty Advisor to two of the university’s student organizations: the “1001 Wells for Darfur,” and the “Egyptian Club.”
His early career witnessed the initiation of the science and technology of remote sensing by photography of the Moon in preparation for the Apollo missions. He served as Secretary of the Lunar Landing Site Selection Committee and Chairman of Astronaut Training in Orbital Observations and Photography. His role was recognized in Episode 10 (“Galileo Was Right”) of the TV series “From the Earth to the Moon,” produced by Tom Hanks for HBO, where his training of the astronauts was featured in a segment entitled: “The Brain of Farouk El-Baz.” In his honor, the popular television program “Star Trek: The Next Generation” featured a shuttle craft named “El-Baz”.
Upon completion of the Apollo program, he established and directed (1973-82) the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. To apply the knowledge gained form Apollo, he served as Principal Investigator of the Earth Observation and Photography Experiment on the Apollo-Soyuz Mission. Emphasis on this first American-Russian space mission of 1975 was placed on photography of desert landforms.
In order to confirm the interpretations of the orbital photographs, he initiated field excursions throughout the Western Desert of Egypt. These field missions accumulated new insights on the origin and evolution of desert landforms. His observations were also key to a better understanding of the features that were revealed by photographic missions to planet Mars. The significance of the findings was underlined by a NASA publication on the analogy of the features of Mars to those in Egypt.
In 1978, he was appointed Science Advisor to the late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and asked select segments in the desert that would be amenable to development. His detailed studies led to the recognition of the symbiotic relationship between the dry environment and the people who populated the desert at the dawn of ancient Egyptian civilization. He was appointed Senior Advisor to the Egyptian Antiquities Organization and participated in the study of the Tomb of Nefertari near Luxor in preparation for its conservation by the Getty Conservation Institute. He also led the National Geographic Society’s team to unveil the second “Solar Boat” south of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and was Science Advisor to the committee responsible for the preservation of the Great Sphinx.
As a pioneer of applying remote sensing in archaeology, he was elected member of the prestigious U.S. National Academy of Engineering and became chairman of its Charles Stark Draper Prize award committee and member of its committee on the Grand Challenges of Engineering. He also chaired the U.S. National Academies committees on Geological Sciences and the Keck Futures Initiative on Imaging Science.
In 1999, the Geological Society of America (GSA) established the “Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert Research,” an annual award aimed at rewarding excellence in arid land studies by experts worldwide. It was followed by the “Farouk El-Baz Student Award” to be presented annually to one male and one female graduate students to encourage desert research throughout the world.
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Abstract |
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Director, Center for Remote Sensing |
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In January 2011, the youth of Egypt revolted against a corrupt government, which lacked vision and imagination. They had lost hope in a bright future for Egypt – a vast country whose population remained confined along the Nile River and Delta. Its cities and villages are severely overcrowded, and its education and health systems cannot cope with the dense population. In addition, over the past 20 years, fertile land has been lost to urban growth at the rate of 30,000 feddans per year. At that rate all of Egypt’s fertile land of 5.5 million feddans would disappear in 183 years. Thus, there is a dire need for major changes, including the opening of new land for living, not only for the present 80 million people, but also for the expected addition of 60 million by the year 2050.
This proposal of a Development Corridor is designed to solve the looming crises. It includes a north-south axis starting at a new port near El-Alemein along the Mediterranean coastline. This axis would run parallel to the Nile Delta until the latitude of Cairo then southward parallel to the Nile Valley to the border of Sudan, a total of 12,000 kilometers. It would include an eight-lane highway, a railroad track, a water pipeline (about one meter in diameter) from Lake Nasser for human consumption and services, and an electricity line to be connected to the main grid for future production of solar energy.
The living area east of the north-south axis would be served by at least 12 east-west branches to connect the main axis to densely populated cities along its path. The new strip of land that would be open for development in the plain between the north-south axis and the inhabited land is 10.5 million acres. This is nearly double the presently used land area. This expanse of land would be utilized in new urban communities, education cities, hospitals, agriculture, agro-industries, factories, sports arenas, tourist sites, etc.
Such a major project would require a decade to complete; perhaps the first five years would be devoted to the east-west branches to immediately ease population pressures. Another five would be devoted to establishing the main north-south transportation and energy axis. However, form the start, young people would either secure jobs in the building phase, or plan for economic development activities along the east-west branches, with hope for a better future.
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