04/01/06

Geologist appointed as Egypt’s new science minister

Hany Mahfouz Helal

By: Wagdy Sawahel

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Geologist appointed as Egypt’s new science minister</h1>
<h4>By: Wagdy Sawahel</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P align=left>Egypt’s prime minister has appointed an earth sciences expert as the country’s new minister for higher education and scientific research. </P><br />
<P align=left>The decision follows Ahmed Nazif’s re-appointment as prime minister and a wide cabinet reshuffle, which president Hosni Mubarak demanded last week (27 December). </P><br />
<P align=left>In his mandate letter to Nazif, president Mubarak wrote that education and health systems “are the mainstay of human development” and that their development would therefore be “a hardcore goal for the coming phase”. </P><br />
<P>Hany Mahfouz Helal, a 54-old year professor of mineralogy from Cairo University, will take the lead of the ministry of higher education and scientific research.</P><br />
<P>He replaces Amr Ezzat Salama who served for 18 months.</P><br />
<P>According to the Egyptian newspaper <em>Al-Ahram</em>, Helal said he will focus on promoting science and technology by creating a higher education fund, which will be partly used to create university-industry-society partnerships, promote both multimedia and distance education. </P><br />
<P>He added that a special focus would be given to the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology.</P><br />
<P>Helal, a published researcher, was educated in Egypt and France, has been awarded prestigious honours by the French government and has held several positions for UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. </P><br />
<P3 align=left>He is currently the secretary-general to Egypt’s higher education development fund and president of Senghor University in Alexandria.<BR></P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/geologist-appointed-as-egypts-new-science-ministe/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/geologist-appointed-as-egypts-new-science-ministe/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Egypt’s prime minister has appointed an earth sciences expert as the country’s new minister for higher education and scientific research.

The decision follows Ahmed Nazif’s re-appointment as prime minister and a wide cabinet reshuffle, which president Hosni Mubarak demanded last week (27 December).

In his mandate letter to Nazif, president Mubarak wrote that education and health systems “are the mainstay of human development” and that their development would therefore be “a hardcore goal for the coming phase”.

Hany Mahfouz Helal, a 54-old year professor of mineralogy from Cairo University, will take the lead of the ministry of higher education and scientific research.

He replaces Amr Ezzat Salama who served for 18 months.

According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, Helal said he will focus on promoting science and technology by creating a higher education fund, which will be partly used to create university-industry-society partnerships, promote both multimedia and distance education.

He added that a special focus would be given to the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology.

Helal, a published researcher, was educated in Egypt and France, has been awarded prestigious honours by the French government and has held several positions for UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

He is currently the secretary-general to Egypt’s higher education development fund and president of Senghor University in Alexandria.