Boshra Salem Explained

Boshra Salem is a professor, founder and the Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt. She is president of Unesco's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) International Coordinating Council (ICC) and serves on the International Council for Science (ICSU)'s Committee for Scientific Planning & Review. She has received a number of awards, including being recognized as an outstanding female scientist in the Women in Science Hall of Fame by the Embassy of the United States in Cairo, Egypt.^[1]

Education

Boshra Salem was awarded her Ph.D. jointly by the University of Alexandria and Imperial College London in 1989. She studied land use in arid lands using remote sensing techniques. As a post-doctoral fellow at the University of London (1994) and the University of Maryland (1996) she worked with computational tools and databases for geographic and environmental information management.^[1]

Research

Salem's major fields of interest are land degradation and desertification in arid environments, and the use of remote sensing, GIS applications and electronic databases to monitor and model changes. She is involved with the development of protected areas and biosphere reserves for biodiversity conservation, environmental impact assessment and strategic environment assessment, and alternative solar energy sources.^[1] She developed an international solar desalination project for Bedouin communities.^{[2] [3]} She is team leader for Egypt's Omayed Biosphere Reserve project, which received the 1997 Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation for its work in Egypt's Western Desert.^{[4] [5] [6]} and has worked with Caroline King-Okumu and others on the Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands (SUMAMAD) project.^{[7] [8]}

Awards

• 1990, UNESCO MAB Young Scientist Award, for "Detection of temporal environmental changes in arid lands by remote sensing. Case study: North coastal desert of Egypt"^[9]
• 1997, Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation, to the Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Alexandria (Egypt) for its work with the Omayed Biosphere Reserve^[10]
• 2009, UNESCO Young Scientists Awards: Michel Batisse grant for biosphere reserve management case studies^[11]
• 2013, Women in Science Hall of Fame, Embassy of the United States, Cairo, Egypt, to honor outstanding female scientists throughout the Middle East and North Africa^[12]

Notes and References

1. News: Dr. Boshra Salem inducted into U.S. Department of State's Women in Science Hall of Fame. 10 July 2016. International Council for Science. https://web.archive.org/web/20160819171633/http://www.icsu.org/news-centre/news/dr.-boshra-salem-inducted-into-u.s.-department-of-state2019s-women-in-science-hall-of-fame. 19 August 2016. dead.
2. Web site: 2007. Combating drought and desertification. Science in Africa. Unesco. 12.
3. News: Dr. Boshra Salem, president of the MAB International Coordinating Council, selected as a new member of the Women in Science Hall of Fame - 2013. 10 July 2016. Unesco. January 29, 2013.
4. Web site: Biosphere Reserve Information Egypt OMAYED. The MAB Program. 10 July 2016.
5. Book: Salem, Boshra. Biosphere reserves on north-western Egyptian coast, a site for monitoring biodiversity and integrated water management. Alsharhan. Abdulrahman S.. Wood. Warren W.. Water resources perspectives evaluation, management and policy. 2003. Elsevier. Amsterdam. 978-0444515087. https://books.google.com/books?id=t2XQL6khAIEC&pg=PA119. 10 July 2016.
6. Book: Assessing the cost of groundwater degradation in the urbanizing desert area of Wadi el Natrun . Caroline. King. Boshra. Salem . Simpson. Richard. Zimmermann. Monika. The economy of green cities a world compendium on the green urban economy. 2013. Springer. Dordrecht. 978-94-007-1969-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=SZl0z0f2AOEC&pg=PA295.
7. Book: Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands SUMAMAD, Fifth Project Workshop Aleppo (Syria) 12 – 17 November 2006. 2007. UNESCO. Paris, France.
8. Web site: King. Caroline. Fourth Project Workshop Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands (SUMAMAD) Islamabad (Pakistan) 26 January to 1 February 2006. United Nations University. 10 July 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20180101153311/http://inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/4th-Project-Workshop-Islamabad-Pakistan-January-2006.pdf. 1 January 2018. dead.
9. Web site: MAB Young Scientists Awards 1990. UNESCO-MAB Young Scientists Awards. 10 July 2016.
10. Web site: Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation - the winners. Unesco. 10 July 2016.
11. News: UNESCO awards recognize young scientists' contributions to biodiversity. 10 July 2016. UN News Centre. 18 February 2009.
12. Web site: Women in Science Hall of Fame - 2013. Embassy of the United States, Cairo, Egypt. 9 July 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20150614225227/http://egypt.usembassy.gov/wis2013.html. 2015-06-14. dead.