Professor Attia Abdel Salam Ashour
Prof. Ashour was born on 13 September 1924 in Dumyat, Egypt.
He obtained his BSc in Mathematics (1944), followed by a DIC (1948), PhD
(1948), and a DSc (1967), all from the University of Cairo (UoC), Egypt.
He started his teaching career as a Research Assistant in the
Mathematics Department of UoC (1944-1945), and was a post-graduate
student at the University of London, UK (1945-1948). He then became
Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Assistant Professor and Professor of Applied
Mathematics at UoC over the period 1948-1984. He was Head of the
Mathematics Department (1959-1960, 1965-1969, 1971-1976, 1980-1984), and
was appointed Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics (1984).
Prof. Ashour was a visiting scientist at the University of London, UK
(1954), at the Physics Institute of the University of Bonn, West Germany
(1955), at the Institute de Radium of the University de Paris, France
(1955-1956), at Exeter University, UK (1962-1963), and in the Physics
Department of Ibadan University, Nigeria (1972). He was Director of the
Advanced Schools on the Physics of the Earth at the International Centre
of Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Trieste, Italy (1977, 1980, 1994), and
Visiting Professor at the Institute of Geophysics, Potsdam, German
Democratic Republic (GDR) (1969 and 1980, on the invitation of the GDR
Academy of Sciences).
He has been President of the Mathematical and Physical Society of Egypt,
and the Editor of the Proceedings of the Society. He is a member of the
Egyptian Mathematical Society, the Egyptian Academy of Sciences, the
Egyptian Geophysical Society, the “Institute d’Egypte,” and the Egyptian
Academy of the Arab Language (1990). He has been a Fellow of the Royal
Astronomical Society (RAS) (since 1954), Fellow of the American
Geophysical Union (1964), Chairman of the Inter-Divisional Working Group
on Internal and External Fields of the International Association of
Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (1973-1979), and Vice-President (1971-1975)
and then President (1975-1979) of the International Union of Geodesy and
Geophysics (IUGG). He was also Chairman of the IUGG Committee on Geodesy
and Geophysics (1974-1983) and remains a member. He was President of the
Arab Union of Mathematicians and Physicists (1975-1977), Vice-President
of the African Mathematical Union (1976-1986), an Elected Fellow of the
Third World Academy of Sciences (1985), Founding Fellow and
Vice-President of the African Academy of Sciences (1985), Member of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (1988-1994), and
President of the International Centre of Pure and Applied Mathematics in
Nice, France (1992-1996). For some time he was a member of the Advisory
Board to the Director General of UNESCO on “Science and the 21st
Century”. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the following
journals: Africa Mathematica, Arab Journal of Mathematics, and
the Journal of Geophysics.
Prof. Ashour’s field of research is “Mixed Boundary Value Problems”,
which also has applications in Theoretical Geomagnetism and in
Theoretical Physics. He has led an active school of research in these
fields and several scientists have obtained their MSc and PhD degrees
under his supervision. He has been an external examiner for BSc
examinations (Mathematics) and PhD theses (Mathematics and Physics) at
several British, Indian and Nigerian universities. He has authored more
than 50 scientific papers, and co-authored the books covering the
mathematics syllabus of the General Certificate of Education as early as
1958. He has been Chief Editor of four books on geophysics written
specially for scientists in developing countries.
He has been awarded the Order of Merit of Arts and Sciences First Grade
three times (1966, 1986, 1988), the Order of Merit of the Republic of
Egypt Fifth Grade (1954) and Second Grade (1984), Chevalier dans L’Ordre
de la Palme Academique, France (1985), the Medal of the African
Mathematical Union (1990), and the Chevalier dans L’Ordre National de
Merite, France (1995).
Prof. Ashour was elected as a Fellow of the IAS in 2000.
