Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Profile: Zahi Hawass

Art Museums Journal (Stan Parchin)

An excellent factual and no-nonsense profile of SCA General Secretary Zahi Hawass.

Zahi Hawass (b. 1947), a native of Damietta, Egypt, has served as his country's Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities since 2002. The award-winning Director of Excavations at the Giza Pyramids, Saqqara and Bahariya Oasis became a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence in July 2001. One of Time magazine's Top 100 Most Influential People in 2005, the world-renowned archaeologist and Egyptologist was appointed Deputy Minister of Culture in November 2009.

Education and Teaching
Having studied law, Hawass turned his attentions to Greek and Roman archaeology at Alexandria University, where he received his bachelor's degree. With a diploma in Egyptology from the University of Cairo, the Fulbright Fellow eagerly pursued his doctorate in the same subject at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned the advanced degree in 1987.

After 1988, Dr. Hawass taught at the American University in Cairo and the University of California-Los Angeles. Involved tirelessly in the construction of 19 new museums, he currently supervises programs that train a fresh generation of Egyptians in the modern methods of systematic excavation, conservation, preservation, restoration and site management.

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