American University in Cairo (AUC)

American University in Cairo (AUC)

American University in Cairo (AUC)

The American University in Cairo was founded in 1919, and is a pioneering American educational institution that provides an outstanding education in the English language and is the center of cultural, social, and intellectual life in the Arab world. The university is considered a meeting place for world cultures and a forum for discussion and extending the bonds of understanding between different cultures due to the diversity of the cultures of students, parents, faculty members, workers, members of the Council of Guardians, alumni, and its honorable supporters who belong to more than 60 countries around the world. The American University in Cairo was founded in 1919, and is a pioneering American educational institution that provides an outstanding education in the English language and is the center of cultural, social, and intellectual life in the Arab world. The university is considered a meeting place for world cultures and a forum for discussion and extending the bonds of understanding between different cultures due to the diversity of the cultures of students, parents, faculty members, workers, members of the Council of Guardians, alumni, and its honorable supporters who belong to more than 60 countries around the world. American University in Cairo (AUC)

American University in Cairo (AUC)

Mark Turnage

Mark Turnage

Title: Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo

Mr. Mark Turnage is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Mr. Mark Turnage is the CEO of DarkOwl. Prior to DarkOwl, he was CEO and vice chairman of OpSec Security Group, a global provider of anti-counterfeiting technologies and online brand protection. Before his operating roles, Mark was a consultant with McKinsey and Co., and a practicing attorney with Davis, Graham, and Stubbs. Mark is a graduate of Yale Law School, Oxford University, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. He serves on numerous corporate and non-profit boards and is a private investor in technology, software, and manufacturing startup companies. He is also a senior adviser to the Colorado Impact Fund and a technology adviser to the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network. Mark speaks Spanish and Arabic, is married with four children, and lives in Denver, Colorado.

David A. Tirrell

David A. Tirrell

Title: Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo

Dr. David A. Tirrell is the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Dr. David A. Tirrell (elected 2010) is the Ross McCollum – William H. Corcoran Provost and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology.  His contributions to chemistry have been recognized by his election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds the Chancellor’s Medal of the University of Massachusetts, the G.N. Lewis Medal of the University of California Berkeley, and the degree of Doctor honoris causa from the Technical University of Eindhoven.
From 1999 to 2009, Dr. Tirrell was chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech.  Prior to joining Caltech, Dr. Tirrell served as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Carnegie-Mellon University and director of the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Tirrell earned his BS in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts.

Francis J. Ricciardone

Francis J. Ricciardone

Title: President of The American University in Cairo

Francis J. Ricciardone is the President of The American University in Cairo in Egypt.

Francis J. Ricciardone was appointed the 12th President of The American University in Cairo and began his term on July 1, 2016. He had served as a Foreign Service Officer from 1978-2014, including appointments as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Turkey, and the Philippines, and Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan. After graduating from Dartmouth College Summa Cum Laude in 1973, he received a Fulbright Scholarship and taught in American international schools in Trieste, Italy, and Tehran, Iran. From 2014-2016 he was Vice President of the Atlantic Council and Director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. He was a distinguished scholar at the US Institute of Peace in 2008-2009. He speaks Arabic, Turkish, Italian, and French. He is married to Dr. Marie Ricciardone, a molecular biologist.

Ehab Abdel-Rahman

Ehab Abdel-Rahman

Title: Academic President of the American University in Cairo

Dr. Ehab Abdel-Rahman is the Academic President of the American University in Cairo

Ehab Abdel-Rahman holds the rank of full professor within the Department of Physics at The American University in Cairo (AUC). He has over 25 years of experience in higher education, six of which have been spent as a senior administrator. Abdel-Rahman served as a department chair, associate dean for Graduate Studies and Research, and vice provost for research prior to his appointment as the vice provost of AUC. He served as interim provost between February and May 2017 and assumed his position as provost in June 2017.
Abdel-Rahman completed his master’s degree at Helwan University in physics in 1993, where he developed a methodology to detect anomalies in materials (including cancer in bones) using low doses of Gamma Rays. In 1995, he moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to study for his PhD, which he completed in 2000. His PhD thesis addressed the development and testing of thin films of quasicrystals. Abdel-Rahman moved back to Egypt in 2003 to work at Helwan University as an assistant professor of physics. There he taught many undergraduate and graduate courses, developed low cost freshmen physics laboratories, and established a research group in thermoacoustics. He joined AUC in fall 2006 as an assistant professor of physics.
Abdel-Rahman has a very active research group in thermoacoustics and photonics. He has published more than 90 technical papers and reports and holds five U.S. patents. He served as Egypt’s energy expert in the country’s research collaboration with the EU team from 2007 to 2009. Abdel-Rahman is the founder of four technology transfer offices at four Egyptian universities. He is also the recipient of the AUC Excellence in Teaching Award (2009) and the AUC President’s Distinguished Services Award, among many other awards and recognitions.