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Prof.
Farouk El-Baz |
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Natural
wind-eroded landform resembling Sphinx in North African desert photographed
by Dr. Farouk El-Baz
High resolution image available |
Lecture at DRI, 755 E. Flamingo Road at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 11. Free and open to public
The Desert Research Institute’s 17th Nevada Medal Lecture will examine
the possible
influence of climate change on the shape of the pyramids and Sphinx erected
during the reign
of the Egyptian pharaohs. The free public lecture will be presented by the 2004
Nevada
Medalist, Boston University Research Professor Farouk El-Baz, in DRI’s
Conference Room,
755 E. Flamingo Road, at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 11.
North Africa’s last major drought 5,000 years ago is believed to have forced inhabitants to gradually migrate toward the Nile Valley as land suitable for grazing or primitive agriculture disappeared. El-Baz will examine evidence that wind erosion induced by this desertification carved natural landforms into shapes resembling the Sphinx and pyramids, shapes that became familiar to migrating North African people. This migration is generally considered the source of the spark that eventually established the civilization of the pharaohs. El-Baz proposes that descendants of the early migrants later reproduced these shapes in the pharaohs’ monuments.
El-Baz will receive the 2004 Nevada Medal, a national award recognizing outstanding scientific achievement, in formal award ceremonies in Reno on March 9 and Las Vegas March 11. The award includes a minted silver medal and $20,000 honorarium sponsored by SBC.
The medalist is an internationally renown geologist who pioneered the use of satellite remote sensing to locate ground water from space, and greatly advanced the understanding of the origin and evolution of desert landforms. A member of the National Academy of Engineering and currently director of BU’s Center for Remote Sensing, El-Baz also led the NASA team that selected lunar landing sites for the Apollo moon missions 30 years ago. He is an Egyptian native and has been an American citizen since 1970. He once served as science advisor to Anwar Sadat, the late president of Egypt, working to identify environmentally sustainable areas in the Egyptian desert that would allow its young, growing population to expand out of the Nile River Valley.
The impact of his NASA work has been acknowledged in popular culture as well as in scientific circles. While in lunar orbit in the summer of 1971, Apollo 15 command module pilot Alfred Worden commented, “I feel like I've been here before," due to the intense preparation by El-Baz. The TV series "From the Earth to the Moon," produced by Tom Hanks for HBO, featured El-Baz’s role in the training of the Apollo astronauts in a segment entitled: "The Brain of Farouk El-Baz." In the popular 1990s television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” a shuttlecraft prominently used in the program was named “El-Baz” in his honor.
El-Baz later used his analytical techniques to assess environmental damage to arid environments in Kuwait immediately following the Gulf War in 1991. His publications on that project are regarded as a definitive body of work for satellite observations of arid environments. In 1999, the Geological Society of America established the "Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert Research," an annual award that acknowledges excellence in arid land studies.
Before he joined Boston University in 1986, El-Baz worked at the Smithsonian
Institution in
Washington, D.C. to establish and direct the Center for Earth and
Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum. He also continued his
work with
NASA, first as principal investigator of the Earth Observations and Photography
Experiment
on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project—the first joint American-Soviet space
mission in July
1975—emphasizing the imaging of arid environments from space. He later
worked to develop
applications for using remote sensing data obtained with the Space Shuttle's
Large Format
Camera.
A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international scale. Nearly 500 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff conduct some 150 research projects at DRI annually. More than 85 percent of DRI's annual $37 million operating budget consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists. The balance is received from the state of Nevada for administrative costs.
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