Mohamed Kassas

Who was Mohamed Kassas?

Mohamed Kassas was an Egyptian botanist and conservationist. He was professor emeritus for Botany at the University of Cairo.

He studied at the University of Cairo, where he received a B.Sc. in 1944 and a M.Sc. in 1947, and at the University of Cambridge. A specialist in the ecology of desert plants, and was among the first to publish on the topic of desertification. Kassas was an advisory member of the United Nations Environment Programme from its beginning, and from 1978 to 1984 president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In 1981, he was appointed a member of the Shura Council, the upper house of the Parliament of Egypt.