Prof. Dr. Fathi Saleh
Dr. Fathi Saleh is currently professor of computer engineering at Cairo University as well as advisor to the prime minister for cultural affairs . He is the Founder and, has been the director of CULTNAT “Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage” for over than 10 years. CULTNAT is part of Bibliotheca Alexandrina and supported by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Dr. Saleh currently holds the position of CULTNAT’s Founder and Emeritus Director.
Dr Saleh was graduated from the Faculty of Engineering – Cairo University and got his PhD from the University of Paris – France. His main interest is the application of the new technologies in the different fields of Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Moreover, he is also the president of Herimed (Association for the documentation, preservation and valorization of Euro-Mediterranean Cultural Heritage) and member of the Supreme Council of Culture and the Board of the Director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, as well as a member of “Institue d’Egypte”. During the years 1995-97 Dr. Saleh occupied the position of Cultural Councilor at the embassy of Egypt in Paris, and from 1997 to 1999 he was the ambassador of Egypt to the UNESCO.
Dr Saleh had founded, in year 2000, the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage ( CULTNAT) as a national center for documentation of different aspects of cultural and natural heritage of Egypt. In the field of cultural heritage, the center documented different aspects of tangible and intangible heritage. One of the major projects in the tangible heritage is building the Archeological Map of Egypt for which the center has won in 2004, the Stockholm Chalange Award. The center has a series of publications in every field of heritage such as Atlases for every region in Egypt with all Archeological sites included, works of the egyptian musicians, cotributition of Arab Civilisation in sciences through old manuscripts, the presidential palaces ….etc. All these publications were forwarded by Dr Saleh.
A major study was carried by the center and headed by Dr Saleh titled ” A strategic approach to Egypt’s Cultural Heritage”. This study was done upon request from UNESCO. The study shows what are the different steps to be followed in order to properly manage the Egyptian Cultural Heritage.
Dr Saleh was also managing a masters degree with the French University in Cairo in Cultural Heritage Management (CHM).
Beside his contributions in CHM, Dr Saleh has won several international awards. In Qatar, in 2010, he got “The Information Systems Expert First Award” from the Arab Towns Organization. Also in 2010, he won, for his work on ” Virtual Representation of Egyptian Cultural Heritage ” the award of ARCHEOLOGICA 2.0 the “Il Congreso Internacional de Arqueologia et Informatica Grafica, Patremonio e Innovacion” held in Sevilia Spain.
Besides these awards, he had won three times the World Summit Awards for different Heritage Contributions. The first was in Geneva in 2003, the second was in Tunisia in 2005, and the third was in Abu Dhabi in 2010.