Mahmoud Hafeth (Arabic: محمود حافظ; January 10, 1912 – December 23, 2011) was a pioneering Egyptian scientist in entomology and former president of the Egyptian Scientific Academy and the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo. He is the first Egyptian to obtain a doctorate in entomology, and the second Egyptian to combine the presidency of the Arabic Language Academy and the Academic of sciences, after the Dean of Arabic Literature, Taha Hussein. He died one week after the Academic of sciences fire, following protests in Cairo.
His upbringing and study
Mahmoud Hafez was born on January 10, 1912, to a family with a long history in the struggle against British colonialism. His father established what was known as the "Kingdom of Faraskour", which was formed in Damietta to expel the English, and he was forced to sell all his possessions to spend on national work, until the Egyptian leader Saad Zaghloul paid 50 pounds to help his son complete his education.
Mahmoud Hafez began his education at Farskour kuttab, where he memorized the Qur’an. However, he left the school and moved to Cairo to complete his education at the Saeidia High School, based on his mother's desire. Then he graduated from the Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Fouad I University at the time, in 1935 and was appointed as a lecturer there, where he obtained a master's degree in 1938. Then a doctorate degree in entomology in 1940, and he was the first Egyptian to obtain this degree. He continued his pioneering research at the University of London and the University of Cambridge in England in 1953, where he was appointed as a Chair Professor of the Department of Entomology at the University, and when he returned to Cairo, he was appointed as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1964.
His professional life
Mahmoud Hafeth contributed to the establishment of the Department of Insects and Plant Protection at the National Research Center and worked on developing it and preparing its researchers and a research unit at the Atomic Energy Authority and the Regional Center for Radioisotopes. He contributed to developing the Vector Research Institute at the Ministry of Health, setting up research programs for it, overseeing its implementation, and preparing scientific cadres in it.
He also participated in the planning of research at the level of the Republic during his tenure as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Scientific Research, and participated in more than fifty international conferences in biological sciences, entomology and pest control, as well as in the history of science. He has also given many lectures at European, American, African and Asian universities as a visiting professor there
In addition to this scientific activity, he had a religious activity, as he worked as Secretary General of the Islamic Hidaya Association with the late Sheikh Muhammad Al-Khader Hussein, Sheikh of the former Al-Azhar Mosque for seventeen years..
Academic of sciences
Mahmoud Hafeth was appointed as an undersecretary for the Supreme Council for Scientific Research, as an undersecretary for the Ministry of Scientific Research in 1968, after which he returned as head of the entomology department until 1972, then he became a full-time professor at the college. And he was chosen as an expert in the Academic of sciences in the committee of biology and agricultural sciences, then he was chosen as a member of the Academic of sciences in the year 1977 AD, in the place vacated by the death of Dr. Murad Kamel, then vice president of the Academic of sciences in 1996 AD until 2005 AD, then the president of the Academic of sciences from 2005 AD.
Since Dr. Mahmoud Hafeth was chosen as a member of the Scientific Academy, he has actively contributed to the activity of the Academy, in its council and conference, and in the work of the committees for which he works as a rapporteur, namely the Committee of Biological Sciences and Agriculture, the Committee of Chemistry and Pharmacy, as well as his membership in the Awards Committee and the Geology and Petroleum Committees.
Dr. Mahmoud Mukhtar said about him on the day of his reception (March 21, 1977 AD): "A bright figure who carried the torch of knowledge and education for a long time with faithfulness and adequacy, and was encrusted with pearls of the true religion and the blessed Arabic language." (Complex Journal C 39).