Edgar Choueiri, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been elected president of the Lebanese Academy of Sciences.

The academy was founded in July of 2007 to encourage scientific research in Lebanon and advise the Lebanese government on scientific matters. The organization includes members from Lebanon and other countries and is modeled after the French Academy of Sciences, which offered guidance and support in its development. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora initially served as the academy’s honorary president.

A native of Lebanon, Choueiri was one of the academy’s founding members and was elected president at the scientific society’s first meeting in Paris last June, which was presided over by the British mathematician, Sir Michael Atiyah.

Choueiri received a Ph.D. in plasma science from Princeton in 1991, and joined the Princeton faculty in 1996. He was promoted to full professor last July.

He heads the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Lab, and the Program in Engineering Physics. He is also associated faculty in the department of astrophysical sciences’ Program in Plasma Physics. His research focuses on problems in astronautics, spacecraft propulsion and plasma physics.