Biography:

Ismail Serageldin is the Founding Director of The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), the new Library of Alexandria, inaugurated in 2002. He also chairs the Boards of Directors for each of the BA's affiliated research institutes and museums. He serves as Chair or Member of a number of advisory committees for academic, research, scientific and international institutions and civil society efforts, including the Advisory Committee of the World Social Science Report for 2013, as well as the UNESCO-supported World Water Scenarios (2013-) and Chairs the Executive Council of the World Digital Library (2010-) and the executive council of the Encyclopedia of Life (2010-) and the ICANN Panel for the review of the internet future (2013-). He also co-chaired the African Union�s high level panel for Biotechnology (2006) and again for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in 2012-2013. Before that he notably co-chaired the Inter-Academy Panel on Capacity Building for Science in (2003-2004) and was a member of the High Level group for the Alliance of Civilizations convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations (2006-2007). He has held many important international positions, including Vice President of the World Bank (1992-2000), and Chairman Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR, 1994-2000), founder and former chairman of the Global Water Partnership (GWP, 1996-2000) and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP), a microfinance program (1995-2000) and was professor of the International Savoirs Contre Pauvret� (Knowledge Against Poverty), at Coll�ge de France, Paris, and distinguished professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He is a member of many academies, including the US National Academy of Sciences (Public Welfare Medalist), the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS), the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the African Academy of Sciences, Institut d'Egypte (Egyptian Academy of Science), the Royal Belgian Academy, The Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He lectures widely, and has delivered the Mandela Lecture in Johannesburg (2011) and the nexus Lecture in Tilburg, the Netherlands (2011) as well as the opening Keynote address to the first International summit of the Book at the Library of Congress in Washington DC (2012). He has received the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan and the Legion d�Honneur from France and is a Commandeur of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. In 2013, Serageldin and the BA received the Calouste Gulbenkian International Prize for thoughts and actions that make a decisive contribution to, and have significant impact on understanding, defending and fostering the universal values of respect for diversity and difference, a culture of tolerance and the conservation of the environment. He has also received the Pablo Neruda Medal from Chile, India�s Bajaj Prize for upholding Gandhian values outside India, and was the first recipient of the Grameen Prize for lifelong efforts to fight poverty, and received the �Champion of Youth� award by the World Youth Congress in Canada. Serageldin has published over 60 books and monographs and over 200 papers on a variety of topics including biotechnology, rural development, sustainability, and the value of science to society. He has hosted a cultural program on television in Egypt (over 130 episodes) and developed a TV Science series in Arabic and English. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Cairo University and a Master's degree and a PhD from Harvard University and has received over 30 honorary doctorates.

Abstract: