Advisory Board
(Formerly Members of the Board of Trustees)

Hanan Ashrawi (Palestine)

Hanan Ashrawi is currently the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She was the Official Spokesperson for the Palestinian movement during the Madrid peace negotiations (1991–1993), and continues to be active in the efforts towards peace in the region. She was also a member of the Task Force on Higher Education convened by UNESCO and the World Bank.

Jacques Attali(France)

Jacques Attali is a leading French commentator on social and economic affairs. He is an economics theorist and a member of the Council of State in France. He is the Founder and President of PlaNet Finance, an international non-profit organization using the Internet against poverty, focusing on structuring the microfinance sector.

Farouk El-Baz (Egypt / USA)

Farouk El-Baz, Research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing, Boston University, is a renowned pioneer in applying space photography to desert studies. His recommendations led to discovering groundwater resources in Egypt, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. He received numerous honors and awards, including NASA’s Apollo Achievement Award, and the Egyptian Order of Merit-First Class. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the African, Arab, and Islamic Academies of Science, and TWAS.

Hans-Peter Geh (Germany)

Hans-Peter Geh is former President of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, and Emeritus Director of the Württembergische State and University Library in Stuttgart. He is a member of UNESCO’s International Commission for the Revival of the Ancient Library of Alexandria. Hans-Peter Geh held numerous positions in German libraries and literary associations and institutions, as well as international organizations.

Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco / France)

Tahar Ben Jelloun is a French writer and novelist of Moroccan descent. He has written many novels as well as books of poetry, prose and criticism. His works include Solitaire; The Sacred Night, which received the Prix Goncourt in l987, and Error of Night, which appeared in 1997. In July 2004, Taher Ben Jelloun received the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel The Blinding Absence of Light. He is a regular contributor to the French newspaper Le Monde.

Umberto Eco (Italy)

Umberto Eco is currently the President of the Istituto Italiano di Studi Umanistici and Weidenfeld Lecturer, Oxford University. He has a number of honorary doctorates from Universities around the world and 16 literary awards and decorations. He is author of over 25 novels, including The Name of the Rose, which was enormously successful both as a novel and a film.

Vigdis Finnbogadottir (Iceland)

Vigdis Finnbogadottir was President of Iceland for over a decade (1980–1992). She is currently involved in many international activities and chairs UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. She is also a Distinguished Advisor for the International Youth Foundation, the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador of Languages, and the Goodwill Ambassador for the Conference against Racism and Xenophobia.

Yolanda Kakabadse (Ecuador)

Yolanda Kakabadse, former Minister of Environment for Ecuador, is Executive President of Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, Ecuador, Member of the Board of Directors of the Ford Foundation. She was President of IUCN–The World Conservation Union from 1996 to 2004. She coordinated civil society participation in the Earth Summit (1992) and has received numerous honorary orders and awards, including the “Global 500 Award” of UNEP (1992) and the Zayed Prize (2001).

Brian Keith Follett (United Kingdom)

Brian Follett is Chairman of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and also of the UK’s Teacher Training Agency. He is a Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. Previously, he was Vice-Chancellor of Warwick University (l993–2001). He was knighted in 1992, and served as Biological Secretary of the Royal Society (UK’s Academy of Sciences) 1987–1993. He has published approximately 300 scientific papers on biological clocks and seasonal reproduction. He chaired two national committees charged with improving academic library structures in the UK.

Luis Monreal (Spain)

Luis Monreal is the General Manager of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Geneva, Switzerland. He has held positions in many institutions: Secretary General of the International Council of Museums at UNESCO (1974–1985); Director of the Getty Conservation Institute (1985–1990); Director General, ‘La Caixa’ Foundation (1990–2001); and was a member of various archeological missions in Nubia, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco. He is the author of numerous works on art and archeology. He is a board member of the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia(Madrid) and of the Gala-Salvador Dalì Foundation in Spain.

Adele Smith Simmons (USA)

Adele Smith Simmons is currently Vice-Chair of Chicago Metropolis 2020 where she focuses on early childhood education and the future of cities. She is also President of the Global Philanthropy Partnership which strengthens networks among donors who are addressing issues of conflict, poverty, health, and hunger. She has been President of the MacArthur Foundation for ten years. There, Simmons oversaw the distribution of over one billion dollars in grants, focusing on peace and international security, the environment and reproductive health. Five of the MacArthur grantees won Nobel Peace Prizes.

Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)

Wole Soyinka is winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, and has authored more than 30 works in the medium of plays, novels, and poetry, many of which have been world-widely translated. He is active on both artistic and human rights organizations, such as the UN Commission on Human Rights, and the International Network of Asylum for Writers, of which he was the immediate former President. He is currently Dubois Fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge and Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature at Obafemi Awolowo Nigeria, Wole Soyinka has received many international honors, including serving as Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO.

Monkombu Sambasivan (India)

Monkombu Swaminathan has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th century, and one of only three from India, alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. He is widely referred to as the scientific leader of the Green Revolution Movement because of his contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India. He has received many awards and honors including First World Food Prize; and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award in 2000. He currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India.

Kazuo Takahashi (Japan)

Kazuo Takahashi is currently Professor, Division of International Studies, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan. He was formerly Director of the International Development Research Institute of the Foundation of Advanced Studies on International Development in Tokyo and Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Kazuo Takahashi serves on various committees of the Japanese Government and international bodies, such as the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare, Earth Council and Club of Tokyo.

Leila Takla (Egypt)

Leila Takla is a Professor of Law and Management, and the Founding President of the Egyptian Federation of Women Lawyers, and the National Association of the Preservation of the Environment. She is a member of many boards and international committees for legal affairs, education, environmental and women’s issues and is the first woman in the world tobe elected to chair a meeting of the World’s Parliaments.She is the President of the Board of Trustees of UN Human Rights Programs, and member of the Executive Board of the National Council of Women, and the Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs. She holds a PhD degree. She is author of a number of books, and writer and political analyst for the Al Ahram daily newspaper.

Carl Tham (Sweden)

Carl Tham is currently chairman of the board of the Swedish Institute of Future Studies, Stockholm; and was the Swedish Ambassador in Germany (2002–2006). He has served in several Swedish Governments. He was Director-General of the Swedish International Development Agency for ten years. He was a member of the task force on higher education convened by UNESCO and the World Bank, co-Chairman of the Independent International Commission of Kosovo and Member of the Commission of Human Security.

William Wulf (USA)

William Wulf is President of the United States National Academy of Engineering. He founded and was CEO of a software company, Tartan Laboratories. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and many professional societies: ACM, IEEE, IEC, AWIS and AAAS, and a Foreign Member of the Australian, Chinese, Japanese, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish Academies. William Wulf headed the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (1988–1990), and was deeply involved in the development of the High Performance Computing and Communication initiative. He is the author/co-author of three books and over 100 papers, and holds two patents concerning computer architecture.

Ahmed Zewail (Egypt/USA)

Ahmed Zewail is the 1999 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, for his pioneering development in the field offem to science. He is currently the Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at Caltech, and Director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science & Technology and the NSF Laboratory for Molecular Sciences. He holds thirty honorary degrees and has been widely recognized with honors and Orders of Merits. Ahmed Zewail is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, and the French Academy among many other academies and societies.

IN MEMORIUM

Stephen Jay Gould (1941--2002)

Stephen Jay Gould was an active member of the Founding Board of Trustees of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and was deeply committed to the ideals of rationality and ecumenism. He was a prolific writer and producer of scientific ideas, many that challenged the ories about the mechanisms by which life has evolved and continues to evolve. He was one of the most well-known writers in science and among the few practicing scientists who had a continuing string of bestsellers on science for the general public, while remaining actively engaged with the most serious aspects of advancement of science. Science and humanistic values have lost a great champion and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and its board lost a great friend. He will be sorely missed.