Ghada Bassioni

Ghada Bassioni was born in Cairo, Egypt, and spent the first seven years of her life in Dortmund, Germany, while her parents (both professors) did their PhDs. She is a graduate of the German School in Cairo and obtained her Bachelors of Science from the Faculty of Science at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. After this, she pursued her Masters of Science jointly from the Technische Universität München TUM, Munich, Germany and Ain Shams University in Cairo. She later went on to receive her PhD in 2004 from the Technische Universität München TUM, Munich, Germany.

In terms of research, Ghada has been interested in a variety of sub topics within chemistry and chemistry related subjects. In her undergraduate, she dabbled in inorganic chemistry, then went into organometallic chemistry during her masters only to end up in physical chemistry and interfacial science phenomena in her postdoctoral studies in the field of construction materials and petroleum chemistry.

Ghada is currently a Professor and the Head of the Chemistry Division at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt and an international project officer at the Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF) within the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research. She is a member of the Bureau of the International Committee of Pure and Applied Chemistry and was appointed a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Young Academy 2014-2016.

She has over 70 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings and has been recognized with several national (like The State Incentive Award in 2013 in the field of chemistry), regional and international awards. She was also selected as an academic visitor and a panellist at the Nobel Laureates meetings in Lindau, Germany, in 2012 and 2014 respectively. In 2013, Ghada received the Young Scientist Award at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China.

Ghada has organized a number of scientific and gender related conferences and workshops in her function as the women’s representative at the Technical University Munich from 2005-2007, as the Chair of the Women’s Initiative at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Abu Dhabi Section from 2009-2011 and as a member and lead of the Women in Science working group of the Global Young Academy. She has received the LEWA Leadership Excellence for Women award runner up in 2013 and was an invited speaker within Springboard Women’s Development Project, organized by the British Council in 2013.