Person: Ashour, Attia
Attia Ashour was an Egyptian mathematician who worked in electromagnetism.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Ashour moved to Cairo to continue his education.
- The standard course was for four years of secondary education which Ashour completed in 1939.
- At this stage Ashour had to make a decision as to what subjects to study at university.
- Ashour studied pure mathematics and applied mathematics, chemistry and physics in his first year but quickly discovered that, although he had a talent for mathematics and theoretical subjects, he was one of the poorest of the students at practical physics experiments.
- Money, however, was not important to Ashour, and so he took the Faculty of Science scholarship.
- One of the applied mathematics lecturers knew Sydney Chapman, a professor at Imperial College, University of London, and arranged an interview for Ashour with Chapman.
- The interview went very well, and Chapman admitted Ashour as a doctoral student.
- Although Chapman would have liked to be Ashour's advisor, since he was soon to leave Imperial College to take up a position at the University of Oxford, he arranged for Albert T Price to become Ashour's advisor.
- Ashour returned to Cairo University in early 1949 where he was appointed as a lecturer.
- Professor Ashour was appointed Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics, Cairo University, in 1984.
- Professor Ashour was a visiting scientist at Queen Mary College, London University in 1954; at the Physics Institute, Bonn University, 1955; 1955-1956, at the Institute de Radium, University de Paris; 1962-1963, Exeter University, UK; and 1972, Physics Department, Ibadan University, Nigeria.
- Professor Ashour was past president of the Mathematical and Physical Society of Egypt and the editor of the 'Proceedings' of the Society.
- On the international scene, Professor Ashour was a Member of the Editorial Boards of the Journals: 'Africa Mathematica', 'Arab Journal of Mathematics', and the 'Journal of Geophysics'.
- For some time, Professor Ashour was a member of the Advisory Board to the Director General of UNESCO on Science and the 21st Century.
- Professor Ashour co-authored the books covering the Mathematics Syllabus of the General Certificate of Education as early as 1958.
- Professor Ashour has authored more than 50 scientific papers in as many years.
- This person can be no other than Dr Attia Ashour, a much respected and much loved member of our community.
- Dr Ashour, please accept this small gift and the gratitude of the International Union of Geodesy & Geophysics for your 22 years of service.
Born 13 September 1924, Damietta, Egypt. Died 17 April 2017, Cairo, Egypt.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Egypt
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
