UPEI names new president

The UPEI board of governors announced its selection for president Wednesday.

Alaa Abd-El-Aziz is currently provost at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus in Kelowna.

In a news release, the university touted Abd-El-Aziz's development of the "First year Experience Program," an early intervention project aimed at engaging first-year students and ensuring they have a career plan. Throughout his administrative career he has also continued working as a chemistry professor and a researcher.

Abd-El-Aziz received his undergraduate and masters degrees in Cairo, his PHD from the University of Saskatchewan, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto. In addition to his work at UBC he served as a professor at the University of Winnipeg.

The president-designate will visit the UPEI campus early in the new year, and will take over his new duties at UPEI on July 1.

Abd-El-Aziz is married to a nurse and has two sons, one in his final year of medical biochemistry in Kelowna and another in grade nine.