On Wednesday, July 8 Dr. Farouk El-Baz visited the TEI participants at the Simmons Dining Hall.  After some brief remarks, Dr. El-Baz mingled with the participants, answered questions about his work at NASA, Boston University and his recent award from the American University of Beirut 

Dr. El – Baz is on the Board of Directors at the University of the Middle East Project and his bio can be found below 

A veteran of NASA’s Apollo lunar exploration program, Farouk El-Baz is director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing. He is renowned for pioneering the use of satellite images in the study of desert landforms. His research resulted in the location of groundwater resources in numerous desert regions, particularly in Arab countries. Professor El-Baz is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the Arab Academy of Sciences. He served as science adviser to the late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and for the past eight years was chairman of the U.S. National Committee for Geological Sciences. 

The Boston University Center for Remote Sensing was established in 1986 under his direction and has advanced the applications of satellite images in the fields of archaeology, geography and geology. In 1997, NASA selected it as a “Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing.”