Ismail Serageldin

Ismail Serageldin is the Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library of Alexandria) in Egypt. He also chairs the boards of each of the BA's affiliated research institutes and museums. He serves as Ambassador of the Alliance of Civilizations and Chairman of the Executive Council of the World Digital Library. He was previously Vice President of the World Bank, and was Professor at the Collège de France, Paris, and a Distinguished Professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He was a member of the Senate in Egypt (Majlis Al-Shura). Serageldin received the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 2011. He has also 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. His academic work focuses on sustainable development issues, particularly related to scientific and agricultural development. As founder and former Chairman of the Global Water Partnership (GWP), he has worked to help countries manage their water resources in a sustainable way. He is active in the Institut d’Egypte (Egyptian Academy of Science), TWAS (Academy of Sciences for the Developing World), and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Elected FHM 2012 (V:3).