Essam Heggy

Essam Heggy
Born
Citizenship
  • United States
  • France
Alma mater
Known forMars exploration and Rosetta mission
AwardsJPL/NASA Mariner Award
Scientific career
FieldsSpace sciences
InstitutionsUSC/JPL/NASA

Essam Heggy (Egyptian Arabic: عصام حجى, pronounced [ʕeˈsˤɑːm ˈħeɡɡi]) is an American and French space scientist of Egyptian descent.

Education

Heggy was born in the city of Tripoli, Libya to an Egyptian family; his father is the Egyptian artist Mohamed Heggy. He was raised in Tunisia, Egypt and France.[1][2] He was the Egyptian president advisor for scientific affairs from 2013 to 2014.[3]

Heggy obtained his Ph.D. in astronomy and planetary science in 2002 with distinguished honors from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Academic career

His main scientific interests in space and planetary geophysics cover Mars, the Moon, icy satellites and near-Earth objects. Heggy is a member of the science teams of several planetary exploration missions, and he is a contributing scientist to several proposed planetary and terrestrial radar imaging and sounding experiments. Heggy taught academic classes and mentored several postdocs and graduated students in UCLA, Caltech, Cambridge University, Paris VI & Paris VII universities, Institut de Physique du Globe, Ecole Normale Superieure, University of Houston, Trento University and Columbia University.

References

  1. ^ Susan Taylor Martin (January 27, 2008). "Research and religion can be a difficult mix". Archived from the original on February 2, 2008.
  2. ^ Tafline Laylin (January 30, 2017). "The Planetary Scientist Leading a Peaceful Revolution in Egypt". OZY.
  3. ^ "Essam Heggy: Egyptian society faces many challenges". Egyptian Government State information System. August 26, 2013. Archived from the original on April 13, 2015.