About the Library

Abdel-Latif Al-Hamad

Abdel-Latif Al-Hamad is the Founding Director-General of the Kuwait Development Fund, and the Dean of Arab Development Efforts. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD). He also serves on many international boards, most recently the World Bank and the World Commission on Water in the 21st Century.

Adele Simmons

Adele Simmons is Vice Chairman of Chicago Metropolis 2020 and President of the G lobal Philanthropy Partnership. She co-chaired a Task Force that prepared the Chicago Climate Action Plan. She edits Global Giving Matters in collaboration with the Synergos Institute, and served as a consultant to the World Economic Forum on philanthropy. From 1989 to 1999, Simmons was President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, overseeing grants of over $1.5 billion in 61 countries. Mrs. Simmons serves also on a number of corporate and non-profit boards where she focuses on the environment and climate change, global peace and security, and the challenges facing cities in the next century.

Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd

Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd is a Professor of Law at Cairo University, Egypt; a practicing lawyer in the fields of constitutional and administrative law, member of the Royal Moroccan Academy, member of the Institute of Islamic Research at Al-Azhar, member of the National Council for Women’s Affairs, and Vice- President of the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt. In 2001, he was selected to co-author a document, endorsed by the General Assembly, entitled “Crossing the Divide” on dialogue among civilizations. He is author of several books and articles on legal philosophy, constitutional law, and Islamic reforms, including Dialogue, Not Confrontation and A Contemporary Islamic Viewpoint.

Ahmed Zewail

Ahmed Zewail is the 1999 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, for his pioneering development in the field of femtoscience. He is currently the Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at Caltech (California Institute of Technology), and the Director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology. He holds some thirty honorary degrees from around the world and has been widely recognized with honors and orders of merits. Ahmed Zewail is an elected member of numerous international academies and societies and serves on the Board of Directors and Trustees of universities, research institutions, and major corporations.

Anne Marie Lizin

Anne Marie Lizin is President of the Belgian Senate and an independent expert of the Commission on Human Rights and extreme poverty since 1998. She works extensively in the areas of women’s and children’s rights. She was President of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the field of Human Rights (1993–1999) and President of the Human Rights Commission of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. She represented the Belgian G overnment at the UN Summit for the Decade for Women. She worked as a member of the UN Committee supporting women against apartheid, and of the Warburton Mission investigating the rape of women in former Yugoslavia in 1991.