• Dr Ahmed Zouel

Ahmed H. Zewail The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1999
Born: February 26, 1946, Damanhur, Egypt
Died: August 2, 2016, Pasadena, CA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, USA
Prize motivation: “for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy”
Prize share: 1/1
 
  • Dr Magdi Yakub

Magdi Yaqoob is a Professor of Nephrology at the Centre for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) and academic director of the Department of Renal Medicine and Transplantation at the Barts Health NHS Trust in the UK. He graduated as one of the top graduates in Medicine (1982) from Dow Medical College, Karachi University, Pakistan. After completing general clinical training, during which he obtained membership of the Royal College of Physicians in London (1985), he began specialist nephrology training in Liverpool, UK, in 1987. He submitted his MD thesis on occupational factors in kidney disease to the University of Liverpool in 1993. He obtained an NIH fellowship to work as a postdoctoral clinician/scientist under Prof. Robert Schrier at the University of Denver in Colorado (1994-1995). He joined the Royal London Hospital as a consultant in 1996 and was awarded a personal chair in Nephrology by QMUL in 2011. He has received several awards (Best European Young Investigator of the Year 1992 and Trainee Investigator of the Year by the Association of Physicians USA 1994). Magdi Yaqoob is an internationally recognized expert in nephrology and transplant medicine in the areas of cardiovascular diseases of uremia, renal anemia, and bone diseases, progression of chronic kidney disease, and mediators of acute kidney injury.

 

  • Omr Elsherief

Magdi Yaqoob is a Professor of Nephrology at the Centre for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) and academic director of the Department of Renal Medicine and Transplantation at the Barts Health NHS Trust in the UK. He graduated as one of the top graduates in Medicine (1982) from Dow Medical College, Karachi University, Pakistan. After completing general clinical training, during which he obtained membership of the Royal College of Physicians in London (1985), he began specialist nephrology training in Liverpool, UK, in 1987. He submitted his MD thesis on occupational factors in kidney disease to the University of Liverpool in 1993. He obtained an NIH fellowship to work as a postdoctoral clinician/scientist under Prof. Robert Schrier at the University of Denver in Colorado (1994-1995). He joined the Royal London Hospital as a consultant in 1996 and was awarded a personal chair in Nephrology by QMUL in 2011. He has received several awards (Best European Young Investigator of the Year 1992 and Trainee Investigator of the Year by the Association of Physicians USA 1994). Magdi Yaqoob is an internationally recognized expert in nephrology and transplant medicine in the areas of cardiovascular diseases of uremia, renal anemia, and bone diseases, progression of chronic kidney disease, and mediators of acute kidney injury.

 

  • Mohamed Salah

Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly (Arabic: محمد صلاح حامد محروس غالي, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mæˈħam. mæd sˤɑˈlɑːħ ˈɣæːli]; born June 15, 1992), known as Mohamed Salah or Mo Salah, is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a right winger or forward for the Premier League club Liverpool and captains the Egyptian national team. He is considered one of the best players of his generation and is among the greatest African players of all time. He is known for his precise finishing, dribbling, and speed. Salah began his professional career in 2010 at Al Mokawloon Al Arab and moved to Basel in 2012, where he won two Swiss Super League titles. In 2014, Salah moved to Chelsea for a reported fee of £11 million but due to limited playing time, he had consecutive loan spells at Fiorentina and Roma, who later signed him permanently for €15 million. In the 2016–17 season, Salah was a key figure in Roma’s unsuccessful title challenge, scoring double-digit goals and assists. In 2017, Salah moved to Liverpool for a then club-record fee of £36.9 million. In his debut season, he set the record for the most Premier League goals (32) in a 38-game season and helped Liverpool reach the UEFA Champions League final in 2018. Forming a feared attacking trio with Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané following Philippe Coutinho’s departure, Salah became an integral player in the club’s Champions League and Premier League title successes in the following two seasons. Additionally, he has since won the FA Cup, EFL Cup, and FA Community Shield. Salah has received numerous individual awards, including two PFA Players’ Player of the Year Awards, three Premier League Golden Boots, the Premier League Player of the Season, the Premier League Playmaker of the Season, third place in the Best FIFA Men’s Player in 2018 and 2021, and fifth place in the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2019 and 2022. He won the FIFA Puskás Award 2018 for his winning goal in the first Merseyside derby of the 2017–18 season. In 2023, Salah became Liverpool’s all-time leading scorer in the Premier League and became the fifth player to score 200 goals for the club. Internationally, Salah represented Egypt at youth level before making his senior debut in 2011. Following his performances at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, he was awarded the CAF Most Promising African Talent of the Year. Since then, he has been runner-up at the African Cup of Nations in 2017 and 2021 and was the top scorer during the CAF qualification as Egypt qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2018. Salah has been named CAF African Footballer of the Year twice (2017 and 2018), BBC African Footballer of the Year twice (2017 and 2018), and has been repeatedly selected in the Team of the Tournament of the African Cup of Nations 2017, the Team of the Tournament of the African Cup of Nations 2021, and the CAF Team of the Year. Salah is considered a symbol of national pride in Egypt for his achievements and was included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in 2019. He is also praised for raising Liverpool’s profile among Egyptians. In Egypt, Salah is referred to as the “Fourth Pyramid.” Throughout the Arab world, Salah is often referred to as the “Pride of the Arabs.

Club career

Al Mokawloon Al Arab

Salah began his career in the youth teams of local clubs like Ittihad Basyoun and Othmason Tanta. His childhood idols include Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and Francesco Totti. In 2006, at the age of 14, he joined the youth team of Al Mokawloon Al Arab after a scout, who had originally come to watch another child play, was distracted by Salah. Salah often had to miss school to make the three-hour journey to training. When Salah was 15 years old, he was noticed by the then head coach, Mohamed Radwan, who immediately promoted him to the first team squad. Due to his young age, Salah had to receive a special diet and training program as his muscles were not yet fully developed.
Salah made his debut for the first team on May 3, 2010, in the Egyptian Premier League, coming on as a substitute in a 1-1 draw against El Mansoura. During the 2010-11 season, Salah continued to play regularly and eventually became a regular starter in the team. Although he received regular playing time, Salah struggled to score goals. After games, he would sometimes be in tears, but Radwan says this only motivated him to get better. He scored his first goal on December 25, 2010, in a 1-1 draw against Al Ahly. Salah remained a mainstay for Al Mokawloon and appeared in every game of the 2011-12 season. Following the unrest at the Port Said Stadium on February 1, 2012, the Egyptian Premier League was suspended, and on March 10, the Egyptian Football Association announced that the remainder of the season would be canceled
In March, the Egyptian Football Association announced that the remaining season would be canceled.

Salah played for Basel in the UEFA Europa League match in March 2013 away against Zenit St. Petersburg.
The Swiss Super League club Basel had been monitoring Salah for some time, so after the suspension of the Egyptian Premier League, the club organized a friendly match with the Egyptian U23 national team. The match took place on March 16 at Rankhof Stadium in Basel, and although he only played in the second half, Salah scored two goals and helped the Egyptians to a 4-3 victory. Basel then invited Salah to stay at the team’s training camp for a week. On April 10, 2012, it was announced that Salah had signed a four-year contract with Basel, which began on June 15, 2012. Initially, he struggled to adapt as he did not speak the language and was signed as a replacement for Xherdan Shaqiri. Salah scored his first goal at his unofficial debut on June 23, 2012, against Steaua Bucharest during a friendly match, which ended in a 4-2 loss. His official Basel debut came in a UEFA Champions League pre-qualification match against Norwegian club Molde on August 8 when he came on as a substitute in the 74th minute. He made his league debut on August 12 against Thun, where he played the entire game.
A week later, he scored his first league goal, the second goal in the 2-0 home win against Lausanne-Sport. Salah scored his first UEFA Europa League goal in the quarter-finals on April 11, 2013, as Basel progressed to the semi-finals with a 4-1 penalty shootout win over Tottenham Hotspur after a 4-4 aggregate score. In the semi-final on May 2, Salah scored a goal away against Chelsea, although Basel were beaten with an overall score of 5-2. Despite the late disappointment in Europe, Basel won the Swiss Super League title in 2012-13 and finished second in the Swiss Cup.
Before the 2013-14 Swiss Super League season, Salah was a member of the Basel team that won the Uhrencup 2013. Salah made his first league appearance of the season against Aarau on July 13, 2013. A month later, he scored his first Champions League goal against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the third qualifying round. Salah was involved in a major controversy after the game, seemingly avoiding shaking hands with the players of the Israeli club in both games. He scored two goals against Bulgarian champions PFC Ludogorets Razgrad in the playoff round. On September 18, 2013, Salah scored the equalizing goal against Chelsea in the 2-1 away win in the group stage. In the return leg on November 26 at St. Jakob-Park, Salah scored the winning goal as Basel beat Chelsea for the second time with a 1-0 home win. However, he couldn’t prevent Basel from being eliminated in the group stage. On the national level, Salah continued his performance. With 4 goals in 18 games, including a brace against title contenders Young Boys, he helped Basel win their fifth consecutive league title.
On January 23, 2014, it was announced that Salah would leave Basel. During his time at the club, Salah played a total of 95 games for Basel and scored a total of 21 goals. Of these, 47 were in the Swiss Super League, six in the Swiss Cup, 26 in UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League), and 16 were friendly matches. He scored nine goals in the domestic league, four in the cup, seven in European cup games, and the others were scored during the trial matches.
2014: Entry into the first-team squad
On January 23, 2014, Premier League club Chelsea announced that a deal had been agreed with Basel to sign Salah for a reported fee of around £11 million. Three days later, the transfer was completed, making him the first Egyptian to sign for the London-based club. Liverpool had shown interest in Salah and made an offer of £11 million but were beaten to his signature by Chelsea. On February 8, Salah made his debut for Chelsea in the Premier League, coming on as a substitute in the 3-0 win against Newcastle United. Seven games later, on March 22, Salah scored his first goal for Chelsea against Arsenal in the London Derby, coming on as a substitute for Oscar in a match that ended as a 6-0 home win. Then, on April 5, Salah opened the scoring and later won a penalty and assisted the third goal in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Stoke City.
  • Nagib  Mafouz

Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha (Arabic: نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, IPA: [næˈɡiːb mɑħˈfuːzˤ]; December 11, 1911 – August 30, 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988. Mahfouz is considered, along with Taha Hussein, one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature to explore themes of existentialism. He is the only Egyptian to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He published 35 novels, over 350 short stories, 26 screenplays, hundreds of opinion articles for Egyptian newspapers, and seven plays over a 70-year career from the 1930s to 2004. All his novels are set in Egypt and always mention the alley that is equal to the world. His most famous works are The Cairo Trilogy and Children of Gebelawi. Many of Mahfouz’s works have been adapted into Egyptian and foreign films; no Arabic writer surpasses Mahfouz in the number of works adapted for cinema and television. While Mahfouz’s literature is classified as realistic literature, existential themes appear in it.
  • President Sadat

 

  • Om kaltoum

 

Singer
  • Dalida

Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (Italian: [joˈlanda kriˈstiːna dʒiʎˈʎɔtti]; January 17, 1933 – May 3, 1987), professionally known as Dalida, was a French singer and actress, born in Egypt to Italian parents. With an international career, Dalida sold several million records worldwide. Her most famous songs include “Bambino”, “Gondolier”, “Les enfants du Pirée”, “Le temps des fleurs”, “Darla dirladada”, “J’attendrai”, “Le jour où la pluie viendra”, “Gigi l’amoroso”, “Salama ya salama”, and “Paroles, paroles” featuring spoken words by Alain Delon. Initially an actress, she made her debut in the film “A Glass and a Cigarette” by Niazi Mustapha in 1955. A year later, after signing with the Barclay record company, Dalida achieved her first success as a singer with “Bambino”. Afterward, she became the top-selling female recording artist in France between 1957 and 1961. Her music charted in many European, Latin American, North American, and Asian countries. She collaborated with singers such as Julio Iglesias, Charles Aznavour, Johnny Mathis, and Petula Clark. Although she acted in several films alongside her singing career, she effectively returned to cinema with “The Sixth Day”, a film by Youssef Chahine released in 1986. The film was successful in Egypt, where three million people gathered in Shubra to watch Dalida’s screening. In France, the film was acclaimed by critics but was commercially unsuccessful. Dalida was deeply affected by the suicide of her partner Luigi Tenco in 1967. Nevertheless, she continued her career, co-founded the International Show record label with her brother Orlando, recorded more music, and performed at concerts and music competitions, but continued to suffer from depression. Dalida committed suicide on May 3, 1987.

Early years

Kindheit in Kairo.

Dalida was born as Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti on January 17, 1933, in Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt. Her father, Pietro Gigliotti (1904–1945), and mother, Filomena Giuseppina (born d’Alba; 1904–1971), were both born in Serrastretta, Calabria, Italy. Pietro studied music in school and played the violin in taverns; Giuseppina was a seamstress. Due to the jus sanguinis of both her Italian parents, Dalida automatically acquired Italian citizenship. As the young couple couldn’t make a living in their hometown, they moved to the Shubra district in Cairo in the year of their wedding, where the Gigliotti family settled between the birth of Iolanda’s older brother Orlando (1930–1992) and younger brother Bruno (1936) within the community. In addition to Giuseppina’s earnings from her work, their social status benefited when Pietro became the primo violino at the Khedival Opera in Cairo and the family bought a two-story house.
Dalida in 1937

At 10 months old, Iolanda suffered from an eye infection and had to wear bandages for 40 days. Her father played lullabies on the violin to soothe her. Between the ages of three and five, she had to undergo eye surgeries. Having to wear glasses during her elementary school years, for which she was bullied, she later recalled: “I had enough of it, I would rather see the world blurred than wear glasses, so I threw them out of the window.” Iolanda attended the Scuola Tecnica Commerciale Maria Ausiliatrice, an Italian Catholic school in northern Shubra. In 1940, her father and other Italian men from their neighborhood were taken by the Allies to the Fayed prison camp in the desert near Cairo. When Pietro was released in 1944, he returned home as a completely different person, so violent that Iolanda and other children in the neighborhood were scared of him. She later recalled: “I hated him when he beat me, I hated him especially when he beat my mother and brothers. I wanted him to die, and he did.” Iolanda was twelve when Pietro died of a brain abscess in 1945.
Modelling, acting
In her teenage years, Iolanda developed an interest in acting due to her uncle’s profession as a film projector operator at a local cinema, and she often participated in school performances at the end of the semester. She graduated from school in 1951 and began working as a copyist at a pharmaceutical company in the same year. Although she was forced to financially support her family due to financial reasons, Iolanda still had acting ambitions. Shortly thereafter, her best friend Miranda encouraged her to participate in the Miss Ondine competition, a small beauty contest in Cairo, which she entered upon the promise that it was just for fun and that her mother wouldn’t find out. When Iolanda unexpectedly won second place and Miranda won third place, they were photographed and featured in the newspapers Le journal d’Égypte and Le progrès égyptien. The next day, when her mother found out, she forcibly cut Iolanda’s hair short. Eventually, her mother relented, and Iolanda quit her job to work as a model for Donna, a fashion house in Cairo. Three Egyptian film directors cast Iolanda in their productions; Marco de Gastyne cast her in The Mask of Tutankhamun (1954) and Niazi Mostafa cast her for a supporting role in A Glass and a Cigarette (1954), on whose posters she appears with her newly adopted stage name Dalila, because, as she explained in 1968, “it was a very common name in Egypt and I liked it very much.”

On December 25, 1954, Dalila left Egypt and moved to Paris. Her first apartment was a room in a friend’s apartment of Gastyne, the impresario Vidal. She met with a number of directors, rehearsed for film roles, but failed each time. Vidal moved her to a smaller apartment, where her first neighbor was Alain Delon (then still unknown to the general public), with whom she had a brief relationship.
Facing difficulties in finding acting work in 1955, Dalila turned to singing. Vidal introduced her to Roland Berger, a friend and professor who was willing to give her singing lessons seven days a week at a low price. He was strict and used to shout, to which Dalila often reacted even louder. Their lessons sometimes ended with her slamming the door, but she always returned the next day. As Berger saw her making progress, he arranged for her performances at the Cabaret Le Drap d’Or on the Champs-Élysées, where she was discovered by Jacques Paoli, the director of another cabaret, La Villa d’Este. Paoli hired her for a series of performances that were popular, and Dalila received her first attention from the audience in France, including Bruno Coquatrix, the director of Olympia, who invited her to perform at his singing competition Les Numéros 1 de demain. In the coming years, Coquatrix said: “[H]er voice is full of color and volume and has everything men love: gentleness, sensuality, and eroticism.” Dalila was also discovered by author and screenwriter Alfred Marchand, who advised her to change her name to Dalida: “Your pseudonym is too similar to the film Samson and Delilah, and it won’t promote your popularity. Why not replace the second ‘l’ with a ‘d’, like God the Father?” She accepted the change immediately.
On April 9, 1956, Dalida participated in the singing competition Les Numéros 1 de demain and sang Etrangère au Paradis. Before the competition, Eddie Barclay, owner of the largest recording studio in France, Barclay, and Lucien Morisse, artistic director of the newly established radio station Europe n°1, met at the Bar Romain (now Petit Olympia) and discussed what they should do that evening. Barclay wanted to see a movie, while Morisse wanted to attend the singing competition, which took place at the Olympia Hall, then the largest venue in Paris. They resolved their disagreement by playing 421, a dice game, which Morisse won. Together with their friend Coquatrix, they were very impressed after Dalida’s victory at the competition and arranged a meeting with her.
hat event was later perpetuated in biopics and books, and became regarded as fateful for Dalida’s career. The three men went on to play a large part in launching her career.[16]
The Temple of Osirion – The Lost Treasure of Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Did you know that there is an underground temple in Egypt that contains secrets and writings found nowhere else in the world? Did you know that entry into this temple costs 30,000 pounds for just two hours? Did you know that this temple is a place to honor the idol Osiris, the god of the dead and life in ancient Egyptian belief? It is the Temple of Osirion, located in the area of Abydos in the Sohag Governorate, behind the Temple of Seti I, one of the most famous kings of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty. This temple is a unique structure in the history of ancient Egypt; it is both a symbolic tomb of Osiris and a temple to worship him. The temple consists of a large hall surrounded by a moat and is entered through a long corridor covered with brick in the shape of a dome. At the end of the corridor is a chamber with a statue of Osiris wrapped in linen, a symbol of resurrection. But the most interesting aspect of this temple is the writings that adorn the walls of the corridor and chamber. These inscriptions are religious texts describing the journey of the soul after death, the judgment it undergoes before the deities, and the punishments and rewards that await it in the afterlife. These texts are part of the Book of the Dead, the Book of Caves, and the Book of Gates and are the primary sources for understanding ancient Egyptian doctrine. Surprisingly, these texts exist nowhere else in the world; they are exclusive to the Temple of Osirion. For this reason, the Temple of Osirion is a precious treasure of ancient Egyptian civilization and is specially protected by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Every visitor can enter the temple only after obtaining special permission, paying exorbitant fees, and adhering to the specified time. This makes visiting the Temple of Osirion a unique and rare experience worth exploring.