Hamed Gohar

Hamed Abdel Fattah Gohar ( Arabic حامد عبد الفتاح جوهر, DMG Ḥāmid ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Ǧawhar ; * 1907 in Cairo ; † 1992) was an Egyptian marine scientist. He is considered a pioneer in marine research throughout the Arab world. In Egypt he is known as the "King of the Red Sea ".

Life and study

Hamed Gohar was born in Cairo in 1907 . He attended the Islamic welfare school and completed his basic and real studies there. He then attended the royal school and obtained the Baccalauréat there . In 1925 he attended the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Egyptian University (later: Cairo University ). In 1926 he completed his studies with an honorary degree and worked in the department of animal biology as a scientific assistant.

Researches

In 1931 he submitted his first master's thesis on the histology of the endocrine gland in rabbits.

In the 1930s Hamed Gohar initiated the first extensive marine biological studies in Egypt and the Arab region. From 1931 to 1939 he researched the coral genus Xenia in the Red Sea. In 1934 he published a study in the British journal Nature about the "partnership between fish and sea ​​anemones " and the cooperation between clownfish and anemones when catching common prey. Gohar said that viewing this phenomenon later became a hobby of underwater photographers . In 1942, Gohar was able to verify the further existence of the marine mammals, which were last proven 100 years earlier and known as dugong ( manatee , also mythically : mermaid ) . Before Gohar found remains of the skulls of the dugongs in the sand of Hurghada over a period of 14 years , the marine mammals in the Red Sea were thought to be extinct. Because Gohar had devoted himself to this matter, a journalist once wrote that “Gohar is married to a mermaid”. But Gohar said he had "dedicated his whole life to the sea itself". He lived for 25 years in the Marine Biology Station (today: National Institute of Oceanography ) in Hurghada. For 30 years it was the only marine biological station on the Red Sea coast. Gohar remembers exactly when he was there for the first time: "It was June 5th, 1931. I was overwhelmed by a constant love for the coral reefs, " he said.

Offices

• 1929 assistant at the science faculty at Cairo University.
• 1934 Vice Director and then Director of the Marine Biology Station in Hurghada for 40 years. He built the Hurghada Maritime Museum there, which contains a large number of rare species of fish and marine plants.
• Since 1946 he has been a teacher at the Department of Oceanography at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Cairo University.
• From 1956 to 1958 he worked as a scientific advisor to the UN Secretary-General for Oceanography.
• October 7, 1959 Member of the Indian Oceanography Board.
• Since 1970 scientific and technological advisor to the Arab League .
• Member of the Academy of the Arabic Language since 1973 . He was a co-author of several encyclopedias published by the Society. His most important contribution appeared in the Lexikon für Biologie , work on it lasted eight years (1976–1984).
• He represented Egypt at the international conference on nuclear waste disposal in Monaco.
• He was an advisor to the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research.

The TV show "The Marine World"

Hamed Gohar presented the wonderful underwater world and the different phases of life of marine animals in an exciting way over a period of 18 years from 1973 to 1992 with the weekly television program “Die Meereswelt” . After his death, the program was briefly taken over by another marine scientist, but it was later removed from the program and never broadcast again.

Web links

• Biographical data on egynews.net (Arabic)
• Short biography on aquatouch.com (English)