Thirty years ago, academic ties between Egyptian universities and UC Davis were strong, aided by funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. That funding has long since evaporated and tensions have heightened in the Middle East, making scholarly and student exchanges and joint research more difficult.

But the need could not be greater for reconstructing those cultural and educational bridges, according to Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef and the UC Davis delegation accompanying him to Egypt in March to renew relationships and explore the possibility of new collaborations.

"We've had a very successful partnership in the past and we shouldn't let it slip away," Vanderhoef said. "Because California and Egypt have so much in common — similar agriculture, climate and water challenges, for example — we have much to teach each other. And, in the process, we can help in the healing of antagonism between the Middle East and the West."

Among those accompanying the chancellor to Cairo and Alexandria were Suad Joseph, professor of anthropology and women and gender studies, and director of the Middle East-South Asia Studies Program, and Kais Menoufy, an Egyptian-American who heads Delegata, a Sacramento technology firm.

Both played key roles organizing the trip.

'Promise of the possible'

Joseph orchestrated a one-day workshop that culminated in the signing of a consortium agreement among the American University of Beirut, American University in Cairo, Lebanese American University, Birzeit University in Palestine and UC Davis. The signing capped — and blessed at the highest administrative levels — Joseph's seven years of work to build this consortium.

"We have much to learn from this ancient, proud civilization which has so much to offer the future," Joseph said. "As a delegation, we have taken some steps together in a journey that is about research, teaching, applying academia to the world we inhabit. But it is also about so much more. It is about relationships, culture, humanity, life, the dignity of each and every person — and it is about the promise of the possible."

Menoufy arranged meetings with several Egyptian universities, with the Library of Alexandria, and with government and industry leaders.

"All of what we did translated to building bridges between the two countries and regions as a starting point for greater relationships to expand the intention and capacity of peace," Menoufy said. "Education is one of the best places to start."

In five days, the delegation met with the heads of 11 universities and their delegations, with four of Egypt's ministers of state — including two who are UC Davis alumni — and with three senior government executives with minister status, with three industry chief executive officers, and with the U.S. ambassador to Egypt.

Six agreements of cooperation for student and scholar exchange and for other academic collaborations were signed — with the four consortium universities, the Library of Alexandria, Nile University, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency, the Agricultural Research Center and Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture.

"This is the right start and the right moment, and we shouldn't lose this opportunity," Minister of State for Agriculture Amin Abaza said. "We really can't let this opportunity pass by. We must try to restart our relationship."

Opportunities for agricultural collaboration abound, said Michael Parrella, UC Davis associate dean for agricultural sciences, after returning from Egypt.

"Many of the crops that they are focusing research on in Egypt are important to California, including tomatoes, cotton, wheat, beans and rice," Parrella said. "There is a general focus in Egypt of developing sustainable methods of production for these crops and we are doing similar work here. In the area of biotechnology, we have many projects that are similar to those in Egypt — for example, improving drought and salinity tolerance of plants as well as increasing a plant's resistance to insects and disease. We need now to help interested faculty members make a connection."

Water is another area of mutual interest — and challenge.

A report issued last month by the World Bank noted that the Middle East represented "the most water-scarce region in the world." A U.N. report last year indicated that some 8.6 million of Egypt's 79 million people already live without sources of clean drinking water. And global water demand has tripled in the last 50 years due to population growth and agricultural industrialization.

Helping Egypt and the world grapple with the demand for this scarce natural resource is UC Davis alumnus Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, Egypt's minister of state for water resources and irrigation, and head of the World Water Council. Abu-Zeid expressed interest in collaborative opportunities with UC Davis and was receptive to an invitation to offer a seminar on campus this fall when he is due to be in the Sacramento area for a conference.

Abu-Zeid joined more than 50 other Egyptian affiliates of UC Davis at a trip-ending reception in Cairo hosted by alumnus Hatem El Ezzawy of PICO Modern Agriculture Co. Also attending was alumnus Ahmed Darwish, Egypt's minister of state for administrative development.

Chancellor Vanderhoef sought to build bridges with another Middle Eastern country — Iran — three years ago, leading what he was told was the first official university delegation to visit Iran since that country's 1979 revolution.

Borderless scholarship and greater understanding are what is sought between UC Davis and Egypt, as well.

"It's very important to reconstruct bridges that have been partially destroyed," Alexandria University President Hassan Nadir Kheirallah said.

Vanderhoef agreed: "They offer not just promising opportunities for our students and our faculty, but to our nation as well."