Nidhal Guessoum, Ph.D.

Nidhal Guessoum is Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at San Diego, and was a post-doctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He has held academic positions in Algeria and Kuwait, and has also been a visiting professor or researcher at several institutions in France and the USA, in additions to collaborations with colleagues from around the world.

Professor Guessoum's primary areas of research are gamma-ray and nuclear astrophysics, with secondary areas of research on Islamic astronomy (new crescent visibility, calendar, cosmology, classical and modern, etc.), and popularization of astronomy and science.

In addition to dozens of technical papers, Professor Guessoum has published many articles as well as several books on issues relating to science, religion/Islam, education, and policy, including: Islam’s Quantum Question: reconciling Muslim tradition and modern science, which has also appeared in French (in two editions, the second one in two updated volumes) and in Indonesian, with the Arabic translation currently under way; The Story of the Universe (in Arabic), which has had 4 editions and sold over 10,000 copies; The Determination of Lunar Crescent Months and the Islamic Calendar, with two editions (one in Algeria and one in Lebanon), all making significant impacts on those topics, among both experts and the general public. He has also edited two conference proceedings volumes on Islamic Astronomy (in English and Arabic).

Professor Guessoum has also given dozens of invited lectures on the subject, from Australia to the USA, including to universities in the Arab and Islamic world. He is a columnist for Gulf News, the premiere English language newspaper of the Gulf region and writes regularly for various magazines.