Alumni Profile
Mahmoud Abu-Zeid
Irrigation M.S. '60,
Engineering Ph.D. '62
Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, the minister of public works and water resources for Egypt and a UC Davis engineering alumnus, says his earliest childhood memories are of water. Because his father’s work for the Egyptian government required frequent relocation, the family moved from one government residence to another. “And while we waited to move into a new place, we often stayed in house boats on the water,” Abu-Zeid remembers. “So, I lived with water and got to know its ways.”
No surprise then that this soft-spoken engineer has devoted his entire career to water issues in Egypt and around the world. Minister Abu-Zeid is a founding member and president of the World Water Council and recently established the Arab Water Council. He has consulted for the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the United States Agency for International Development, and numerous other organizations.
Abu-Zeid refers to water as “the key initiator of life on this blue planet.” However, he adds, there are great disparities in water wealth and difficult political challenges in moving water across national borders. Abu-Zeid strives to solve water disputes between nations, assist developing countries in life and death struggles for water and food, while fostering a better understanding of water issues world-wide. “There are many unsolved problems, a lot to do and much to learn,” he says.
The Minister is also keenly interested in education. He has found time to teach regularly at Cairo University, Ain Shans University and the Institute of African Studies in Egypt, am ong others. Moreover, he believes deeply in the power of education to bridge misunderstandings and problems between nations. When UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef visited Cairo in April 2007 to reopen academic collaboration with Egyptian universities, Abu-Zeid joined him. Six agreements of cooperation for student and scholar exchanges and other academic collaborations were signed.
The “Building Bridges” initiative, as this revitalized collaboration has been called, will use video conferencing and other distance learning tools to bring Egyptian and American students together to learn. Abu-Zeid anticipates exchanges between scientists and academic leaders in both countries.
Abu-Zeid is confident the idea will succeed because, in addition to his own educational experience at UC Davis, he was instrumental in sending 50 Egyptian students to UC Davis and 20 to Sacramento State University for graduate education during the 1970s and 1980s. “The core staff of the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources was educated at UC Davis,” he is proud to say. “Investment in people is the best investment.”
Abu-Zeid has fond memories of his own time in Davis, where he felt warmly welcomed when he arrived for graduate school in 1960. “The whole city was like a family,” he says. “I was never made to feel like a stranger.” It was in Davis that Abu-Zeid met and married his wife, who also came from Egypt for graduate education in engineering. They made lifelong friendships in Davis, as well.
Abu-Zeid recently visited Davis to receive the Cal Aggie Alumni Association’s Emil M. Mrak International Award. “I am so honored by this award and happy that the same warm spirit I experienced in Davis is still alive.”
