Mohamed Morsi

He was born on August 8, 1951, in the Sharqia Governorate, in the village of El-Adwah, Egypt, to a farmer father, and housewife mother. He is the eldest of five brothers.

In 1975, he obtained a bachelor's degree in engineering from Cairo University and then completed his post-graduation in 1978. Later, he earned a PhD in materials science from the University of Southern California in 1982 with his dissertation "High-Temperature Electrical Conductivity and Defect Structure of Donor-Doped Al2O3".

Meanwhile he also joined the Muslim Brotherhood, a political, Islam-based organization, as a member in 1977.

He started his career as a lecturer at the California State University, Northridge, and served as an Assistant Professor from 1982 to 1985. Being an expert on precision metal surfaces, he also worked for NASA helping to develop Space Shuttle engines.

In 1985, he resigned from his job at CSUN and returned to Egypt and became a professor at ‘Zagazig University’, where he was appointed head of the engineering department, a post he served until 2010.

In 2000, he was first elected as a Member of Parliament, officially as an independent candidate because the Brotherhood was technically barred from running candidates for office under the regime of Mubarak.

From 2005, he served as a member of the Guidance Office of the Muslim Brotherhood until the founding of the ‘Freedom and Justice Party’ in 2011, at which point he was elected to be the first president of the new party.

He was arrested several times under Hosni Mubarak's regime for various protests; he spent seven months behind bars in 2006, and was detained for a brief period in 2011, along with several other Brotherhood leaders.

In 2013, he was awarded an honorary PhD by the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) in recognition of his achievements and significant contribution toward the promotion of peace and harmony in the world and for strengthening bilateral relations with other Muslim countries.