Ismail Serageldin is the Founding Director of The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), the new Library of Alexandria, inaugurated in 2002 in Egypt. He also chairs the Boards of Directors for each of the BA's 19 affiliated research institutes and museums. He serves as Chair or Member of many international panels and committees including the Executive Council of the World Digital Library (2010-) and the Encyclopedia of Life (2010-). He also co-chaired the African Union’s high level panel for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in 2012-2013. 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). He held a chair at the Collège de France, Paris (2010-2011) and the Lavoisier Chair at the Belgian academy (2013-2014).
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 African Academy of Sciences, Institut d'Egypte (Egyptian Academy of Science). 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, and holds the Pablo Neruda Medal from Chile. In 2013, Serageldin and the BA received the Calouste Gulbenkian International Prize.
Serageldin has published widely (over 60 books and monographs and over 200 papers) and 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.