Rushdi Said

(Ministry of Industry, Petroleum and Mineral Wealth, Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority, 1971)

(Ministry of Industry, Petroleum, and Mineral Wealth, Geological Survey of Egypt and Mining Authority, 1971)

Rushdi was honored by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1962, who awarded him the Order of Sciences and Arts, First Class. He was also awarded the 2003 leadership of the American Association of Petroleum Geology, in recognition of his scientific work on the geology of Egypt and the Middle East, which opened up new horizons for the application of this science in the search for oil in the region.

He had the opportunity to be involved in politics in the 1960s and 1970s as a member of the People's Assembly and also in the International Parliamentary Union. Rushdi was unique in choosing to specialize in the subject of geological Egypt. He wrote a book on Egypt's geology which won the admiration of the world's scientists and became a recognized authority on a local level and globally. He was also an expert in irrigation. He has written books and articles on mining and agriculture and irrigation in Egypt and the region in general. His main project, to which he has devoted years of his life, is the renaissance of Egypt and the development of the Egyptian population. He served as a professor at Cairo University from 1950 until 1968, and was the manager of the Mining and Geological Research Institute in the period from 1968 - 1977.

Rushdi Said (Arabic: رشدي سعيد) (May 12, 1920 – February 8, 2013) was an Egyptian scientist. He was educated at Cairo, Zurich, and Harvard Universities. A professor of geology, he was the chairman of the board of the Egyptian Mining and Geological Research Organization (1968–1977). He played a major role in the development of this organization with the new mining discoveries that enabled Egypt to compensate for the various mines lost after the occupation of Sinai.

Said was born in 1920 in Elkolali, a district of Shoubra, Cairo, in a middle-class family with roots from Assiut. He studied at Cairo University's Faculty of Science, where he graduated in 1941 with honors then was appointed as a lecturer in the same college. He began teaching geology in the faculty after returning from a scientific study in the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in 1951. He lived in Washington, D.C. from 1981 until his death.