207-7 Contributions of the Abdelsalam Family to the Geoscience Community

Session: Honoring the Late Professor Mohamed Abdelsalam: Outstanding Researcher, Generous Colleague, Legendary Mentor, and Ambassador for the Geosciences In Africa

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In 2024, the Abdelsalam Family and the broader geoscience community lost two members, Oklahoma State University Regents Professor, Mohamed Abdelsalam, and his geologist son, Montasir “Monty” Abdelsalam. The family’s path to our community started in Kassala, Sudan surrounded by majestic granitic spires. Mohamed came to the US in 1988 to study for his PhD at the University of Texas at Dallas after earning his BS and MS at the University of Khartoum. After finishing his PhD, he held a faculty position at UTD and became a critical part of UTD’s Afro-Arabian geology research program. He carried out field campaigns in Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia and helped build an innovative program to apply remote sensing to address questions in structural geology and tectonics. He also began collaborations in geophysics with researchers studying the East African Rift. He moved to Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2006, where his research interests expanded further to include Nile history, paleodrainages, and paleolakes. After moving to Oklahoma State University in 2012, he was instrumental in establishing a structural geophysics research program that gained international recognition. In 2021, he was named Regents Professor, the highest faculty honor at OSU. Montasir followed in his father’s footsteps and pursued a career in geology at OSU.

Mohamed was more than an outstanding researcher who asked compelling questions and published significant research papers. He was also a generous colleague, a legendary mentor, and a career-long ambassador for the geosciences in Africa. He enthusiastically developed collaborations with people from both Africa and the US for research projects in Egypt, Sudan, and the East African Rift. From 2000-2004, he was President of the Geological Society of Africa, where he transformed the organization with his charisma, enthusiasm, and deep belief in the importance of raising the profile and capacity of geoscience research done in Africa by African geoscientists. When he became one of the Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of African Earth Sciences in 2017, his insistence on rigorous review coupled with an emphasis on helping authors achieve the goal of a high-quality paper was instrumental in raising the quality of the Journal. The geoscience community is richer for having the contributions of the Abdelsalam family and their research is fundamental to our science.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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