Michel Bakhoum
Encyclopedia
Michel Bakhoum was an Egyptian
consulting civil engineer
, university professor, and a researcher in concrete
structures.
. His parents moved to Cairo five years beforehand from a small village near the town of Tahta in Southern Egypt. He received several awards; the first was in 1931 (Prince Omar Tosson Award) as he was the first of his class in the High School diploma competition, which included all the High School diploma students in Egypt.
He graduated from the Civil Engineering Department at Cairo University
in 1936 (then known as Fouad I University). He completed his M.Sc. in 1942, and his first Ph.D.
in 1945. He was the second person in Egypt to receive a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University. He did not feel that this was sufficient in terms of education and wanted to learn more. At that time, the Second World War had ended allowing for the possibility of studying in the USA. In 1945, he traveled to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
where he got his second Ph.D. Wishing to strengthen his background in mathematics
, theoretical mechanics
and elasticity theory, he spent one year at Columbia University
in New York
. He was working at the same time in a consulting firm in New York, to get practical experience.
s, shells, grain silos, cement factories, airport
s, industrial plants, and other structures in Egypt and in the Middle East
. The firm contributed immensely to the introduction of prestressed concrete
structures in Egypt.
Through the consulting engineering firm ACE, Michel Bakhoum did consulting work for over four-hundred-and-fifty projects, and designed a number of challenging structures. For example, he worked on seven buildings more than forty stories high in Cairo, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, which was the second tallest building in Cairo at the time (now fourth highest). These buildings were designed before computers were available. He also designed the Cairo Stadium, with an official capacity of eighty thousand. It happened, however, that in the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 1969, more than one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand people attended the finals (50% more than the design capacity) without any problems. In addition to the above, he designed the Ramses prestressed-concrete bridge over the River Nile in Cairo. When completed in 1976, it had the longest span (105 m) for a bridge over the River Nile. It held the record till 1986, when other bridges, also designed by his firm (ACE) surpassed this span. Other interesting structures that he designed included the shells (hyperbolic paraboloid) for the Cairo International Fair. These shells held the World Record for prestressed shells for about ten years.
Michel Bakhoum's consulting work extended also to other countries in the region, mainly Libya
and Kuwait
, but also to Mali
and Sudan
.
He contributed to the design of several churches and the structural design for St. Mark Cathedral in Abassia, Cairo, Egypt.
and six Ph.Ds. It is interesting to mention that some of the methods he developed in his M.Sc. are still used in practice in Egypt to compute stresses in building columns and bridge piers. A paper was published about this method in the Journal of the American Concrete Institute in 1948. The comment of the reviewer is given at the end of the article. He is the author of the book Structural Mechanics, written in English, which comes to 1,430 pages. The book is still used as a reference in many universities in Egypt, and in other countries.
, Cairo Airport, and industrial factories, in 1960, 1963, and 1964 respectively. He received an award for designing prestress shells in 1966 from the FIP (International federation for Prestressed Concrete).
Michel Bakhoum died on 21 April 1981. The next day, the daily Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram
published a front page news article about him, citing that he died, and summarized his main works. Al-Ahram is the main newspaper in Egypt, established in 1876, with about one million copies printed daily. News in the first page of Al-Ahram about people who have died, is only kept for the most notable in Egypt. In addition, a street in the Dokki District (in Giza, Greater Cairo) where he lived was named after him, Dr. Michel Bakhoum Street. This is considered an honor bestowed to very few people in Egypt. An article about Michel Bakhoum appears in the Dictionary of Distinguished Egyptians in the 20th Century published by the Middle East News Agency in 1998. Also, an article in the Book entitled History of the Coptic Church, Volume 8: 20th Century.
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
consulting civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
, university professor, and a researcher in concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
structures.
Education and early years
Michel Bakhoum was born in June 1913 in CairoCairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. His parents moved to Cairo five years beforehand from a small village near the town of Tahta in Southern Egypt. He received several awards; the first was in 1931 (Prince Omar Tosson Award) as he was the first of his class in the High School diploma competition, which included all the High School diploma students in Egypt.
He graduated from the Civil Engineering Department at Cairo University
Cairo University
Cairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
in 1936 (then known as Fouad I University). He completed his M.Sc. in 1942, and his first Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1945. He was the second person in Egypt to receive a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University. He did not feel that this was sufficient in terms of education and wanted to learn more. At that time, the Second World War had ended allowing for the possibility of studying in the USA. In 1945, he traveled to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
where he got his second Ph.D. Wishing to strengthen his background in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, theoretical mechanics
Applied mechanics
Applied mechanics is a branch of the physical sciences and the practical application of mechanics. Applied mechanics examines the response of bodies or systems of bodies to external forces...
and elasticity theory, he spent one year at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He was working at the same time in a consulting firm in New York, to get practical experience.
Consulting engineering
In 1949, Michel Bakhoum returned to Egypt where he started teaching in the Structural Engineering Department at Cairo University as an assistant professor. He started a consulting firm in 1950 with his colleague Ahmed Moharram. The company is now known as ACE: Arab Consulting Engineers (Moharram-Bakhoum). The company started as a structural-design office with four people in 1950, now the company has over eight-hundred staff working with the consulting firm ACE. The consulting firm has designed several buildings, bridgeBridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s, shells, grain silos, cement factories, airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
s, industrial plants, and other structures in Egypt and in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. The firm contributed immensely to the introduction of prestressed concrete
Prestressed concrete
Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming concrete's natural weakness in tension. It can be used to produce beams, floors or bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete...
structures in Egypt.
Through the consulting engineering firm ACE, Michel Bakhoum did consulting work for over four-hundred-and-fifty projects, and designed a number of challenging structures. For example, he worked on seven buildings more than forty stories high in Cairo, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, which was the second tallest building in Cairo at the time (now fourth highest). These buildings were designed before computers were available. He also designed the Cairo Stadium, with an official capacity of eighty thousand. It happened, however, that in the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 1969, more than one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand people attended the finals (50% more than the design capacity) without any problems. In addition to the above, he designed the Ramses prestressed-concrete bridge over the River Nile in Cairo. When completed in 1976, it had the longest span (105 m) for a bridge over the River Nile. It held the record till 1986, when other bridges, also designed by his firm (ACE) surpassed this span. Other interesting structures that he designed included the shells (hyperbolic paraboloid) for the Cairo International Fair. These shells held the World Record for prestressed shells for about ten years.
Michel Bakhoum's consulting work extended also to other countries in the region, mainly Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
and Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, but also to Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
and Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
.
He contributed to the design of several churches and the structural design for St. Mark Cathedral in Abassia, Cairo, Egypt.
Academic career
Michel Bakhoum taught civil and structural engineering students for about forty years, mainly at Cairo University, but also at Ain Shams and Assiut Universities. He was a teaching assistant from 1937 to 1945, and then as assistant professor and professor from 1949 till 1981. It is estimated that he taught more than ten-thousand civil-engineering students. In addition to teaching, he was very much interested in research. He supervised twenty-one M.Sc. thesesThesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
and six Ph.Ds. It is interesting to mention that some of the methods he developed in his M.Sc. are still used in practice in Egypt to compute stresses in building columns and bridge piers. A paper was published about this method in the Journal of the American Concrete Institute in 1948. The comment of the reviewer is given at the end of the article. He is the author of the book Structural Mechanics, written in English, which comes to 1,430 pages. The book is still used as a reference in many universities in Egypt, and in other countries.
Societies
Michel Bakhoum was a fellow and member in several technical societies — Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK), and representative in Egypt form 1972 to 1979; Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Member of the American Concrete Institute; and Member of the International Association for Bridges and Structural Engineering and various other engineering and academic bodies.Awards
Michel Bakhoum received three awards from the President of Egypt for his designs of Cairo International StadiumCairo International Stadium
Cairo International Stadium or "Stad El-Qahira El-Dawly", is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000. It is the Arab World's second largest . It is the foremost Olympic-standard facility befitting the role of Cairo, Egypt as the center of events in the region...
, Cairo Airport, and industrial factories, in 1960, 1963, and 1964 respectively. He received an award for designing prestress shells in 1966 from the FIP (International federation for Prestressed Concrete).
Michel Bakhoum died on 21 April 1981. The next day, the daily Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram
Al-Ahram
Al-Ahram , founded in 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya . It is majority owned by the Egyptian government....
published a front page news article about him, citing that he died, and summarized his main works. Al-Ahram is the main newspaper in Egypt, established in 1876, with about one million copies printed daily. News in the first page of Al-Ahram about people who have died, is only kept for the most notable in Egypt. In addition, a street in the Dokki District (in Giza, Greater Cairo) where he lived was named after him, Dr. Michel Bakhoum Street. This is considered an honor bestowed to very few people in Egypt. An article about Michel Bakhoum appears in the Dictionary of Distinguished Egyptians in the 20th Century published by the Middle East News Agency in 1998. Also, an article in the Book entitled History of the Coptic Church, Volume 8: 20th Century.
See also
- List of prominent Copts