About > Scientific committee

Manal ABDEL MONEIM GHANNAM

-  Head of the Central Administration for the Conservation and Restoration of Antiquities and Museums (CACRAM) since 2021.

-  Deputy Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities for Conservation and Restoration Affairs (2021).

-  General Director of the Center for Restoration and Conservation of Antiquities at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) (2018 – 2021).

-  General Director of the Restoration Department of the Manial Palace Museum (2012 – 2018).

-  Director of the Technical Office and Restoration Projects at the CACRAM (2006 – 2010).

-  She holds a PhD in Conservation of antiquities in 2008 in the use of alternative supports in the displaying of detached mural drawings, in cooperation with the Sapienza University in Rome, Italy

-  She holds a master's degree in conservation of mural drawings In the Islamic ancient buildings in 2002.

-  Supervising many foreign missions and archaeological sites.

-  Supervising the restoration and Conservation of the royal mummies, packing them and transferring them to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC).

Abdelhai ABDELSAWI FEDLELMULA

-  Graduated in the University of Khartoum 1986, in Faculty of Science – Geology
-  Teaching science in High secondary schools 1986- 1988
-  Roots drilling company – till 1989
-  1989 Antiquities inspector at NCAM (National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums
-  Master degree in Geoarchaeology (Origin of sediments at Kadero Neolithic site). 1998-2001-Pznan-Poland.
-  Field directoer in MADAP project (Merwe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project). 2001-2004
-  Field Director of of ROS project (Roseris Dam heightening Salvage Project. 2010-2012
-  Field Director of of UA project (Upper Atbara -Setit Dam Archaeological Salvage Project. 2013
-  Field Director in DDASP qutari project (Deba-Dam Archaeological Survey Project). 2013-2014
-  Researching in Blue Nile Archaeology for Phd. Now head of Archaeological department at NCAM.

Maddalena ACHENZA, architect, holds a degree in architecture from the University of Florence, a PhD in architecture obtained in Cagliari and the CEEA-Terre (Certificat d'Etudes Approfondies en Architecture) achieved at CRATerre - ENSAG in Grenoble (France). She is an associate professor at the University of Cagliari, Faculty of Civil, Environmental and Architecture Engineering, where she also teaches courses in the frame of the UNESCO Chair "Earthen architecture, building cultures and sustainable development". President of ICOMOS-ISCEAH International Scientific Committee for earthen architectural heritage and coordinator of the same committee within ICOMOS Italy. She is technical consultant for the International Association of Earthen Cities (Italy), and World Monuments Fund (USA). She is a member of scientific and organizational committees of numerous international conferences and of the latest World Terra Congresses. She has participated as manager, coordinator or partner in various international projects financed by the European Community and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia on the themes of conservation and enhancement of the vernacular heritage, and in particular the heritage built with earth. She has a long and intense experience of teaching at academic level and for professional training in the field of vernacular and sustainable architecture. Achenza is author of over 80 publications.

Julie R. ANDERSON is Curator for Sudan and Nubia in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. Receiving her PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada in 1996, her thesis focused on domestic and civil architecture in medieval Sudan. She has worked extensively in Sudan and Egypt for over 30 years excavating numerous sites and has co-directed the Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums’ Berber-Abidiya Archaeological Project since 1997. Entitled Finding Sustainability in the Desert, the ongoing conservation work by the project of the monumental 1st century AD Amun temple at Dangeil, Sudan was selected by the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) as part of their contribution to the UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021 (COP26) held in Glasgow. The project has also been short-listed for the ICCROM-Sharjah Award for Good Practices in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management in the Arab Region, 2019 – First Category, Heritage Sites and Buildings. Currently she is Honorary Chair of the Sudan Archaeological Research Society, Honorary Secretary for the International Society for Nubian Studies, and Editor of Sudan & Nubia.  

Ninon BLOND is a PhD in geography from the University of Lyon and an Assistant Professor at the ENS of Lyon. As a geographer working on Holocene socio-environmental interactions in Africa (Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia) and the Middle East (Iraq), her work is based on a systemic, integrated, multi-method and resolutely interdisciplinary approach, at the interface between geography, geomorphology, geoarchaeology, sedimentology, geohistory and ethno-geomorphology. Her research issues allow her to understand the mutations of socioecosystems and the relationships between societies and their environments at different spatial and temporal scales. In East Africa, she works mainly on climatic and environmental evolutions of the northern Nile basin, where she seeks to identify the biophysical and/or anthropogenic, socio-political or cultural factors at the origin of the evolutions in the relationships between societies and environments. Within the Nile's Earth project, she works in particular on the relations of ancient and contemporary populations to the river, in a tension between risk and resource - the resource being here the earth that allows the construction of buildings or the manufacture of objects. She combines geomorphological surveys, the study of sedimentary deposits and interviews on the sites of Kerma-Doukki Gel (Sudan), Medamud and Karnak-Treasury of Shabaqo (Egypt).

Pr. Charles BONNET is an archaeologist, medievalist and specialist of Ancient Nubia. After obtaining a degree in agriculture, he studied Egyptology from 1961 to 1965 at the Centre d'études orientales of the University of Geneva. In 1975, he obtained his PhD degree in Medieval archaeology (University of Lyon II). Between 1982 and 1992, he was an advisor to the Fonds national suisse de la Recherche scientifique and an expert in the research program "Conservation methods for cultural heritage ". In 1975, he became director of the Swiss mission in Kerma, then co-director of the joint Swiss-French-Sudanese mission in Kerma-Dukki Gel between 2013 and 2022. He became a visiting professor at the Collège de France in 1985 and was elected Correspondant étranger to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1990. During his career, he has directed numerous archaeological excavations in Switzerland, Italy, France, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan.

Dr. Ann BOURGÈS (C2RMF) is a conservation scientist at C2RMF (HDR in 2017 in materials science). In 2006 she obtained her PhD in mineralogy at the University of Geosciences at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. She worked as a conservation scientist specializing in stone and clay conservation at the Laboratoire de Recherche des Monuments historiques (LRMH) for 13 years and now holds the same position at the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF). Ann Bourgès is secretary general of ICOMOS France and leads the climate and heritage working group as well as the WP6 Climate, interface and Patrimoine of the national research project Equipex+ Espadon. She also leads the AFNOR group on the standardization of cultural goods - inorganic porous materials constituting cultural heritage.

Maël CRÉPY (Ifao and Archéorient) is a geographer and geoarchaeologist, specialist in the interactions between societies and arid or semi-arid environments in the late Holocene. After a PhD on the oases of the Kharga Depression in the Western Desert of Egypt, he contributed to several archaeological and geoarchaeological projects in Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Egypt. He mobilises methods of physical geography, spatial analysis and the study of Western travelers’ accounts (18th-20th c.) in order to assess the ways in which humans transformed their environments, in particular through the exploitation of water, soil and natural resources. After consolidating his approaches and methodology by applying them to a vast portion of the Egyptian territory within the framework of the Desert Networks project (dir. B. Redon, https://desertnetworks.huma-num.fr/), he joined the Institut français d'archéologie orientale (Egypt, https://www.ifao.egnet.net/) in September 2021 as a scientific member. He is developing research on the socio-environmental evolution of the desert margins of Egypt from the beginning of the Old Egyptian Empire to the present day. He participates in six archaeological missions (one in Uzbekistan and five in Egypt), including the Mission Archéologique Française du Désert Oriental (MAFDO), for which he is taking over the direction this year (https://desorient.hypotheses.org/).

Tony CROSBY is a Preservation Architect for 50 years which includes 25 years with the US National Park Service working throughout the US on preservation projects. He left the NPS in 1998 and continued in private practice, working both nationally and internationally. Projects include the development of a national assessment of heritage protection needs in Armenia, condition assessments, historic structure reports and conservation intervention directives and specifications for historic structures, such as Mission San Miguel and the Royal Presidio Chapel in California, historic site of Atturaif in Saudi Arabia, and numerous mud brick sites in Egypt. He also has worked at archeological sites in the United States, in Central and South America, including planning for heritage and hands on preservation work. Experience also includes documentation and preservation design for earthen archeological sites, construction documents for historic structures, development of preservation maintenance programs, project management and field supervision of preservation projects. He has written on preservation in National and International publications and taught at local, regional, national, and international preservation meetings and courses. Currently serving on the Board of ISCEAH, the International Scientific Committee on Earthen Architecture Heritage, ICOMOS as an expert member.

Islam Mohamed EZZAT is an assistant lecturer, Department of Museums and Sites Management, Faculty of Archaeology, Ainshams University. Researcher of ancient materials studies and restoration of antiquities, The Archaeometry Department, the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology (Ifao). He used to be the Egyptian government coordinator of the EU-funded project “Transforming the Egyptian museum Cairo”. Graduated from the Conservation of Antiquities Department, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University in 2010. He obtained the master’s degree in the strategic management of museums and cultural heritage organizations from the National School of Public Administration and Scientific Research, Quebec University, Canada in September 2019. He obtained another master’s degree in applications of Nanotechnology in conservation of organic artefacts, from the Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University. He received various scholarships and training courses in Conservation sciences, Museology and Archaeometry in Germany, the United Kingdom and Austria. He gained the prize of excellence of research from the National Institute of Public Management of Canada, considering his master’s thesis as one of the best five theses in the Canadian federal universities in 2020.

Pr. Fekri HASSAN (b. 1943) is Director of the Cultural Heritage Program at the French University in Egypt. He is Emeritus Petrie Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He has a Ph.D. in Anthropology, Southern Methodist University (1973). He served as Vice-President of “World Archaeology Congress”, and President of the “Water History Association”, and served as chief editor of “African Archaeological Review” for 10 years. Hassan has a long career in archaeology, geoarchaeology, demographic archaeology, water history and cultural heritage management with more than 300 publications and reports. He led many archaeological field expeditions since 1974 in search for archaeological indications for the origins of agriculture and state society in Egypt. In combination with his main interest in archaeology, Hassan’s contributions extend to the role of urban centers and cities in Egypt and elsewhere. His interest in urban archaeology is conjoined with his involvement in the preservation and management of urban heritage. This led him to become concerned with the problems facing the valorization of Hassan Fathy’s legacy in Egypt and the demise of his village in New Gourna, which culminated in the restoration of one of the remaining houses as a center for Hassan Fathy’s architecture and sustainable development.

David GANDREAU is an archaeologist, PhD in architecture, researcher at the National School of Architecture of Grenoble (ENSAG, Univ. Grenoble Alpes). He is specialized in earthen cultural heritage studies, conservation and valorization. He has carried out numerous missions of expertise and training, in particular on World Heritage sites in the Middle East and in Africa. Since 2018, He is co-responsible for the UNESCO Chair “Earthen Architecture, Constructive Cultures and Sustainable Development”.

Thierry JOFFROY is an architect and researcher at Grenoble National School of Architecture, expert in earthen architecture and local building cultures. Since 1986 he has participated in the teachings of the post master on earthen architecture (DSA Terre) before taking the responsibility of its coordination and since 2009, its scientific direction. In the meantime, he has been participating in various research work of the CRAterre research Laboratory with being active in many fields (more than 300 missions carried out in 60 countries) through providing his expertise for the elaboration and implementation of various projects and programs I the fields of architecture, heritage and sustainable development, including the AFRICA 2009 program. In 2010, the Academy of Architecture awarded him the “restoration” silver medal in recognition of his numerous works on the conservation of heritage in connection with ICCROM and the UNESCO World Heritage Center. Since 2011, he has assumed the scientific responsibility of the AE&CC Laboratory of Excellence (Labex), which now includes more than 100 researchers in architecture, town planning and territorial sciences. In 2018 he has been empowered to direct researches (HDR) and now supervises several theses in architecture.

Nadia LICITRA is an archaeologist, post-doc fellow of CRAterre (AE&CC/ENSAG/UGA) and associated member of UMR 8167 Orient&Méditerranée of CNRS. She obtained her PhD degree in Egyptology in 2014 (Paris-Sorbonne University) and since 2008 she has been the Director of the archaeological mission at the Treasury of Shabaqo in Karnak (UMR 8167/CFEETK). She has taken part in several archaeological missions in Italy, Egypt and Sudan. Her research focuses mainly on storage architecture, construction techniques and materials of Nile valley earthen architecture.

Séverine MARCHI is an archaeologist attached to the CNRS’ research unit UMR 8167-Orient et Méditerranée. Since 1998, she is involved in several missions in Egypt (Tell el-Herr, Ouadi el-Jarf, Taposiris-Plinthine, Treasure of Chabaka at Karnak) and Sudan (Gism el-Arba, Zankor-Abou Sofyan, Kerma-Dukki Gel). She is co-director of the Swiss-French-Sudanese archaeological mission of Kerma-Doukki Gel. Her research topics and current projects mainly concern urban archaeology, domestic and military architecture and the study of related archaeological material. She also contributes to several programmes on storage facilities, archaeometallurgy and faience crafts in the Nile Valley.

Anita QUILES received her PhD in Physics from the University Paris-Diderot in 2011 and her HDR in 2021 from the University of Paris. She also has a master's degree in Egyptology from the Sorbonne University (Paris4). She is the head of the Archaeometry Department of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, Egypt (Ministry of Higher Education and Research, network of French schools abroad). She is an associate researcher at the Astroparticles&Cosmology laboratory (Paris), the director of the Chuchuwayha archaeological mission in British Columbia (Canada) and the responsible of research programmes on chronological modelling of ancient Egypt, supported by the French National Agency of Research. Her research focuses on modelling complex chronologies for archaeological sites using an integrated approach, developing cross-dating approaches and investigating archaeomaterials.

Bérangère REDON is a historian and archaeologist, specializing in foreign presences (Greek and Roman) in the areas located on the fringes of Egypt. She is a research fellow at the CNRS (HiSoMA, Lyon) since 2012. B. Redon currently leads the ERC project "Desert Networks: Into the Eastern Desert of Egypt from the New Kingdom to the Roman period" (ERC-2017-STG, proposal number 759078). In this project, she is reconstructing the circulation networks in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. In parallel, Bérangère Redon is the director of the French mission of Taposiris-Plinthine, on the Mediterranean coast, in the Alexandrian region. She began in 2013 the exploration of the site of Kom el-Nogous, which probably hosts the remains of the locality of Plinthine, cited by Herodotus. This work, conducted by a multidisciplinary team, gathering archaeologists, Egyptologists, ceramologists, archaeobotanists, geographers and architects, has revealed the dynamism of the locality from the New Kingdom (mid-2nd millennium BCE) to the early Roman period. A temple of Rameses II is being excavated, and the site is most probably the heart of a vineyard created by the pharaonic power to exploit and secure the northwestern margin of Egypt.

Corinna ROSSI (born 1968) is an Italian Egyptologist. She graduated in Architecture at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II and specialized in Egyptology with an M.Phil. and a Ph.D at Cambridge University (UK) under the supervision of Barry J. Kemp. She was Junior Research Fellow at Churchill College (Cambridge, UK) and later became Associate Professor of Egyptology at Politecnico di Milano (Italy), where she now teaches archaeometry and ethical issues relating to the archaeological research.  She was a team member of the British Mission to Tell al-Amarna and is now a team member of the joint Dutch-Italian Mission to Saqqara of Museo Egizio, Torino and Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden and of the IFAO-Museo Egizio mission to Deir al-Medina. In parallel, she was the co-director with Prof. Salima Ikram of the North Kharga Oasis Survey and is now the Director of the Italian Mission to Umm al-Dabadib in the Kharga Oasis (Egypt’s Western Desert). She received a National Geographic/Waitt Grant and an ERC Consolidator Grant to support her fieldwork in Egypt.  She published extensively on the relationship between architecture and mathematics as well as on the exploration of Egypt’s Western Desert. 

Intisar ELZEIN SOGHAYROUN is a professor of archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Khartoum.  Her research interests include theoretical archaeology, Islamic civilization, archaeology and museum studies, ancient technologies, theatrical archaeology, and gender archaeology. She was a research fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway, in 2008 and at St John's College / University of Cambridge, UK, in 2000. She has held several administrative positions at the University of Khartoum, including Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Dean of the Department of Scientific Research. She was Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research from Sept. 2019 to Oct. 2021. She is an active member of national, regional and international associations of archaeologists. She has also worked as a consultant for a number of organizations such as Ethiopia-Sudan Power System Interconnection, Red Sea Power Plant, SMEC International PTY LTD and Consultancy Service Lake Nasser/Nubia Watershed. She has presented papers in about 33 conferences worldwide and has received a number of research grants. She has published a number of papers in reputable peer-reviewed journals. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, her M.A. in 1987 from the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt, and her B.A. in 1982 from the University of Khartoum, Sudan.

Jeffrey SPENCER worked in the British Museum’s Department of Egypt and Sudan from 1975 to 2011, the last ten years as Deputy Keeper of the Department. He has a longstanding interest in the mud-brick architecture of ancient Egypt, a topic which was the focus of his postgraduate research at the University of Liverpool, later published in his Brick Architecture in Ancient Egypt (Warminster 1979). He has spent over 40 years excavating town sites in the Nile Valley and Delta, the main activity of which was the identification and delineation of mud brick structures. In addition to numerous publications of these excavations with their record of mud brick tombs, houses and temple foundations, he has also published several articles specifically on the methods of mud brick recognition.

Dr. Ahmed Mahmoud TAHER MOHAMED

×   Co-director of the Center Franco-Égyptien d'Études de Temples de Karnak (CFEETK) at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
×   Team member of the CFEETK Karnak Origin project on the southeast corner and the middle kingdom court at Karnak temples.
×   Site supervisor of Egyptian-Chinese joint mission in Montu Temple at Karnak. Montu Temple Project (MTP).
×   Project director of Khonsu and Montu temples at Karnak graffiti project (KMTGP), Ministry of Antiquities, Luxor Archaeological Zone, Karnak inspectorate, Luxor (Egypt).
×   Site supervisor of South Abydos Excavations Early Dynastic Cemetery and Settlement.
×   Team member of Front of Karnak Temple Excavation (FKTE), Ministry of Antiquities, Luxor Archaeological Zone, Karnak inspectorate, Luxor (Egypt).
×   Sectors supervisor of the Sphinx Avenue Excavation, Ministry of Antiquities, Luxor Archaeological Zone
×   Instructor of digital Archaeology in the field of excavations and survey Training Program by Scientific Center for Archaeological Field Training
×   Excavation Supervisor of different Field School around upper Egypt: Ramses II at Abydos (Elbaliana –Sohage) Beginner Field School, Kom el-Rasras (Kom Ombo- Aswan) Beginner Field School, Karnak Temples Beginner Field School, Abydos Archaeological Field School Training Program, at Abydos (Elbaliana – Sohage), Qena Archaeological Field School, Dendara Temple, Qena, Deir el-Shalwit Field School (DSFS), Deir el-Shalwit Temple, Luxor-West Bank.