The interacademy partnership (IAP) has appointed over 60 outstanding researchers and scientists worldwide to the COVID-19 advisory group – one of them is the DAAD Alumnus Prof. Dr. Abdel Meguid Kassem from Egypt. The over-achieving aim of the advisory group is to provide communication and advice based on the latest scientific information available in response to questions received from IAP members. Together with his IAP working group, Prof. Kassem works on publications, e.g. regarding SARS-CoV-2 infection among health care workers that are at increased risk in Egypt.

The DAAD Regional Office Cairo expresses its heartfelt congratulations to Prof. Abdel Meguid Kassem! Alf Mabrouk!

Following the guiding principle of the DAAD – “Change by Exchange” – Prof. Abdel Meguid Kassem’s career is a model example for the fruitful exchange across borders and continents. He was a DAAD fellow at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) from 1996 until 1998. Today, he is professor for gastroenterology at Cairo University in Egypt and is still conducting several research projects together with TUM and other partners. In 2015, Prof. Abdel Meguid Kassem was awarded with the highest honour in Germany: he received the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (“Bundesverdienstkreuz”) for supporting the health services in his home country Egypt as well as in Tunisia and Tanzania. Prof. Abdel Meguid Kassem is not only a passionate researcher, he also operates as established doctor in Cairo and functions as medical advisor for the German Embassy in Cairo and other German institutions in Egypt. He supports the DAAD Regional Office Cairo on a regular basis as a valuable partner, evaluator and even and especially in times of crisis with his well-founded advice regarding health care affairs. He is regularly invited to join selection processes for scholarships at the DAAD Regional Office Cairo as an expert in the medical field.

The honourable Kassem family also generously supports other young scientists in Egypt: Through the “Prof. Dr. Mahfouz Kassem Scholarship” administered by the DAAD Foundation (trustee: DAAD e. V.), the family offers short-term funding for young Egyptian pharmacists to conduct research and further their training in Germany. The scholarship is named after Prof. Abdel Meguid Kassem’s father, a pharmacist and also an outstanding scientist who was a DAAD and Alexander von Humboldt fellow.

For mor information about the scholarship is available on our website or on the website of the DAAD Foundation.

Author: Ann-Kathrin Schwarz