Prof. Hassan is the President of the African Academy of Sciences, Secretary General of the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO) and serves on a number of committees in other organizations worldwide. He was born in the Sudan in 1947, and holds a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the University of Oxford, UK (1974). A former professor and dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Khartoum, he received the order of scientific merit of Brazil and the order of merit of Italy. He is a fellow of TWAS, AAS, and the Islamic Academy of Science; honorary member of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences and the Palestine Academy of Science and Technology; corresponding member of the Belgian Royal Overseas Academy of Sciences; and foreign fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. His research areas include theoretical plasma physics, physics of wind erosion and sand transport.