Naguib Kanawati

Naguib Kanawati (born 1941) is an Egyptian Australian Egyptologist and Professor of Egyptology at Macquarie University in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Early life Kanawati was born in Alexandria, Egypt to a Melkite Greek Catholic family of Syro-Lebanese descent.

Career A native of Alexandria, Egypt, he obtained a master's degree in business administration and later emigrated to Sydney, Australia, where he obtained his second Master's degree and Doctorate, both in Egyptology. He subsequently joined the academic staff of the university, as lecturer in History (1980–1983), and Associate Professor in Egyptology (1984–1990).

From 1990, Kanawati became Macquarie University's first Professor in Egyptology and holds a Personal Chair in that subject. He was instrumental in the formation of the Rundle Foundation for Egyptian Archaeology in the late 1970s and was the founder, in 1989, of the Australian Centre for Egyptology, which coordinates all Australian excavations in Egypt with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. He has directed numerous excavations and epigraphic expeditions, at sites including the entire mountain of El-Hawawish (in excess of 800 Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period rock-cut tombs), Quseir El Amarna, El Hagarsa (near Sohag), Deir El Gebrawi, Giza, as well as the Unis and Teti pyramid cemeteries at Saqqara, Meir and Beni Hassan.

Other interests He is also the current vice-president (and member for many years) of the Parish Council of the Melkite Catholic Eparchy Church of Australia and New Zealand; vice-president, Eparchy Pastoral Council; the chairman of its Aged Care Committee; chairman of the Melkite Board of Study; and former chair of its finance committee. He was the founding committee member of the Holy Saviour Community School, continuing on the committee since 1997.

Honours and awards Kanawati was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1997. In the Queen's Birthday Honours awarded on 11 June 2007 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to education through research and the promotion and advancement of the study of Egyptology, and to the community." On 10 February 2010 Zahi Hawass presented Kanawati with a Festschrift to celebrate his contribution to the discipline of Egyptology over the past 35 years.