Hon. Board Member
He is member of the Board of Trustees of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, and the Geological Society of America Foundation, which established in 1999 “The Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert Research” to encourage and reward excellence in arid land studies worldwide. He served on the Steering Committee of Earth Sciences of the Smithsonian Institution, the Arid and Semi-Arid Research Needs Panel of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Lunar Nomenclature Group of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). He is Chair of the U.S. National Committee (USNC) for the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), and committee member of the GMRA Water Prize and the International Geoscience Program (IGCP), both of UNESCO, Paris.
Dr. El-Baz is President of the Arab Society of Desert Research and the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including NASA’s Apollo Achievement Award, Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and Special Recognition Award; the University of Missouri Alumni Achievement Award for Extraordinary Scientific Accomplishments; the Certificate of Merit of the World Aerospace Education Organization; and the Arab Republic of Egypt Order of Merit – First Class. He is the recipient of the 1989 Outstanding Achievement Award of the Egyptian American Organization, the 1991 Golden Door Award of the International Institute of Boston, and the 1992 Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also received the 1996 M. T. Halbouty Human Needs Award of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the 2004 State of Nevada Medal, and Pioneer Award of the Arab Thought Foundation.