Dubai: Dubai announced that Egyptian Professor Abbas El-Gamal has won the ‘Arab Geniuses’ award in the Engineering and Technology category for 2025, following thousands of nominations for the award’s new cycle. Professor El-Gamal has made pioneering scientific contributions to network information theory, which has laid the foundation for many modern digital networks worldwide.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, El-Gamal contributed to the development of Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and CMOS image sensors used in smartphones. His work has also contributed to the development of technologies supporting digital sensing systems, computing, and communications. He has published more than 230 scientific papers, and his book, ‘Network Information Theory,’ is a global reference for engineering and technology students. Major technology companies around the world utilize his research.

Abbas El-Gamal began his academic career in Egypt, graduating with first-class honors in electrical engineering from Cairo University in 1972. He then moved to the United States and enrolled at Stanford University, where he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1975, a master’s degree in statistics in 1977, and a doctorate in 1978.

El-Gamal served as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University from 1978 to 1980, and has been a full faculty member since 1981. He directed the Information Systems Laboratory from 2004 to 2009 and served as chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 2012 to 2017. In his major, ‘Network Information Theory,’ El-Gamal studied the performance limits of communication networks and developed a set of algorithms and protocols to reach these limits.

El-Gamal made significant contributions to the development of CMOS image sensors, a technology widely used today in smartphones and digital cameras. He led the programmable digital camera project, which became the cornerstone of numerous innovations in the field, and supported the training of PhD students who later became pioneers in the sensor industry. He and his team also developed award-winning devices in the field of digital technology.

Abbas Al-Jamal joined LSI in 1984 as director of the company’s newly established Systems Research Laboratory, which later evolved into a highly successful consumer products division.