Prof. Mahmoud Ahmed El-Sherbini
Founder of the Egyptian Physical Society
First Editor in Chief of the Egyptian Journal of Physics
(1909 – 1998)
Professor Mahmoud El-Sherbini is considered one of the pioneers of
physics in Egypt and is highly appreciated for his contribution to the spreading
and development of physics education and research in Egypt as well as in the
rest of the Arabic world.
Born in Menia Al Kamh, a small town in the province of El-Sharqia
where he attended school, Mahmoud El-Sherbini entered the one-year-old
Faculty of Science of the Egyptian University in 1926. This was the only university in
Egypt at that time. Four years later he was awarded the honour
and distinction the B. Sc. Degree in Physics and Mathematics. The M. Sc. Degree
that was to follow, was entitled “Third Order Terms in the Theory of Stark
Effect and Three Dimensional Periodic Orbits in the Field of Non-Neutral Atoms”
and was supervised by professor Ali Moustafa Mosharafa.
In 1932 he joined King’s College in London. There he had the honour of
working with the great English physicist and Nobel Laureate Sir O. W. Richardson
who also supervised his Ph. D. thesis on “Electron Reflection in the Low Energy
Region”.
On his return to Egypt in 1935, he was appointed lecturer at the Physics
Department of the Faculty of Science of the Egyptian University. He was the
first graduate of the Egyptian University to obtain a Ph. D. degree in Physics.
In 1945 his scientific efforts were rewarded with a position as an
assistant professor. In the same year, he left the Egyptian University in Cairo
(named University of Fouad I at that time) to join the University of Farouk I in
Alexandria (renamed Alexandria University in 1952) where he was appointed
Head of the Physics Department.
In 1949 he became Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science of
Alexandria University (the first graduate of an Egyptian University to become
Professor of Physics), Vice Dean (1950 – 1952) and Dean (1957 – 1961).
Professor El-Sherbini remained Head of the Physics Department for more than
20 years (1945 – 1969). He continued his contribution to Physics as Emeritus
Professor till 1998. Apart from the Physics Department that was founded by him,
he is also regarded as one of the founders of the Faculty of Science of Alexandria
University.
Professor El-Sherbini’s lifelong contribution to Physics teaching and
research in Egypt is inestimable. Among his great achievements in the field of
research is his work on Stark effect for strong fields which was recognized as
one of the most accurate in this area (Quantum Mechanics by Pauling and Wilson,
McGraw- Hill), his pioneering work on crystal rectification which is among the
best of its type and also the first work on Solid State Physics in Egypt, and his
the discovery of inverse rectification at low temperatures which was the basis for
the theory developed by Holten in 1951.
His textbooks on heat and thermodynamics, electrodynamics and
quantum mechanics still serve as indispensable references for both undergraduate
and graduate students.
Moreover, with his numerous open lectures and essays, in which he as
no other had mastered the art of simplifying complex matter in such a way that
physics became accessible for a broad public, he managed to inspire a great number
of people and attract dozens of students to study physics.
In 1968 he established a Centre for Nuclear Studies at Alexandria University.
The Cockcroft and Walton accelerator with which the Centre was equipped, was the
first accelerator in Middle East Universities.
The Egyptian Physical Society and the Egyptian Journal of Physics were established by
Professor El-Sherbini in 1968. In the same year, he was elected
first President of the Society and first Editor in Chief.
His passing away in 1998 was a great loss to the scientific community in Egypt.