Egyptian Professor at Stanford University Crowned UAE’s Great Arab Minds 2025 Winner
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The Egyptian professor gets top recognition for shaping today’s digital networks — and proving Arab talent is building the future, not just consuming it.
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Egyptian-born Stanford professor Abbas El Gamal has been announced as the latest winner of the UAE’s Great Arab Minds Award, earning the top spot in the Engineering and Technology category for 2025.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid praised El Gamal’s “pioneering scientific contributions,” highlighting how his work helped shape modern digital communication — basically the systems our hyper-connected world runs on.
What the Award Is All About
Launched in 2022 with a Dh100 million fund, the Great Arab Minds initiative aims to celebrate standout scientists and innovators every year. Past winners span medicine, natural sciences, arts, economics — and now, one of the biggest names in digital networks joins the list.
Why El Gamal Stands Out
El Gamal is a long-time professor at Stanford University, known for his groundbreaking work in network information theory. In simple terms, he helped build the backbone of today’s digital networks and inspired generations of engineers along the way.
He has published more than 230 papers, held 35 patents, and influenced fields from imaging technology (yes, including the tech behind smartphone cameras) to advanced circuit design.
A Career Rooted in Curiosity
El Gamal started his journey in Cairo University before heading to Stanford on a Rotary scholarship. Over the years, he led major engineering departments, worked on industry-changing projects, and even helped create tools used to study brain activity.
In an earlier interview, he said he always wanted to focus on “things that mattered” — a mindset now honored on one of the region’s biggest stages.