Nidhal Guessoum

He has also worked hard to spread modern scientific knowledge in Arab-Muslim society. In particular, he co-authored a book on the crescent-based Islamic calendar (in two editions), insisting on taking modern astronomical knowledge and methodology fully on board when addressing the problem. He further coauthored four Arabic editions of The Story of the Universe – from primitive conceptions to the Big Bang.

In 2013 Guessoum wrote a commentary in Nature showing the stark contrast between the state of astronomy in the Arab world during the golden age of Islamic civilization and criticizing Arab nations for not investing more money in astronomy research, which he suspects "is being neglected because of the strongly utilitarian Arab Muslim approach to science."

Prof. Guessoum is a passionate advocate of re-instilling scientific methodology in Muslim culture. In 2010, he authored Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science. In the book, he argued that modern science must be integrated into the Islamic worldview, including the theory of biological and human evolution, which he maintains does not contradict Islamic tenets and ethos. He insisted that the Muslim world should take "scientific questions—quantum questions—with utmost seriousness if it is to recover its true heritage and integrity."

From 1990-1995, Prof. Guessoum worked at the University of Blida, Algeria. In 1995, he moved to the College of Technological Studies, Kuwait, where he stayed until 2000. Since that year, he has been based at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. He holds memberships with the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR), and the Islamic Crescents Observation Project (ICOP).

Prof. Guessoum attended Lycée Amara Rachid School in Algiers and went on to earn a B.Sc. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Science and Technology of Algiers in 1982. He then went to the United States for graduate studies. He earned M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, San Diego. His 1988 doctoral thesis, "Thermonuclear reactions of light nuclei in astrophysical plasmas", featured a recalculation of the rate of the fundamental reactions underlying the rate of energy production in the core of the Sun (in addition to neutrinos) as well as the rates of breakup reactions of light nuclei (protons and alphas particles on C, N, O, etc.) in various astrophysical environments, especially in accretion disks around compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars, where this is accompanied by gamma-ray line emission.

Nidhal Guessoum M.Sc, P.hD. (born September 6, 1960) is an Algerian astrophysicist. He is a professor at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.