NASA named its newly-discovered asteroid after the Egyptian scientist Farouk El-Baz.
This is the first time an Egyptian scientist has been named an asteroid after an Egyptian scientist.
El-Baz earned a bachelor s degree in chemistry and geology from Ain Shams University at the age of 20. In 1961, he obtained a master s degree in geology, a doctorate in 1964 then worked for NASA during the Apollo program.