NASA Geologist Dr Farouk El-Baz

One very early morning I was in the kitchen with my dad while he was getting ready for work. From where I stood I could see our TV in the living room. The TV was a black-and-white model with a timer. Yes, expect the TV to shut off without notice. On that day in that hour of the morning the TV was on. A special broadcast was airing - a moon landing. I looked at the TV screen from the kitchen but didn’t appreciate the moment. I was 4 or 5 years old. Without the influential work of Dr. Farouk El-Baz I wouldn’t have very briefly witnessed a moon landing broadcast in 1969.

Farouk El-Baz is an Egyptian American space scientist and geologist, who worked with NASA in the scientific exploration of the Moon and the planning of the Apollo program. After attending college in Egypt, he moved to the US in 1961 to pursue his Ph.D. In 1969 as Apollo 11’s lunar module, the Eagle, made its way to the surface of the Moon Farouk El-Baz, the secretary of the Lunar Landing Site Selection Committee, was in Mission Control. Quite a journey.