Image Courtesy: Google Doodle
Nabil Ali Mohamed (3 January 1938 – 27 January 2016) was an Egyptian computer scientist who made significant contributions to the field of Arabic language computing. He was one of the pioneers of this field and played a key role in developing tools and systems for processing and analyzing Arabic text. Some of his notable achievements include the development of the first Arabic text editor and the first Arabic spell checker. In addition to his work in Arabic language computing, Mohamed also made contributions to the fields of machine translation and natural language processing.
Life and Career
Dr. Nabil Ali was born on 3 January 1938 in Cairo. Mohamed was inspired to apply his creative passion for visual aesthetics to engineering at a young age after expressing an interest in art. He spent over 20 years working as an engineer with the Egyptian Air Force, as well as with various computer and electronics companies throughout the world after receiving his Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering from Cairo University.
Dr. Nabil Ali believed that digitizing Arabic, which possesses complex linguistic rules and morphology, would enable Arabic speakers to connect with the world at large.
A number of papers, books, and technical reports were published by Dr. Nabil Ali during his career in support of the developments he was making in the field of computational linguistics. In 2012, he received the prestigious Saudi Arabian award, the King Faisal Prize, for his pioneering contributions to the Arabic language and literature.
At the age of 78, he passed away on 27 January 2016.
Award and Legacy
He received General Book Authority Award for Best Book in 1994. In 2003, he was awarded with General Book Authority Award for Best Culture Book. In 2012, he received the prestigious Saudi Arabian award, the King Faisal Prize, for his pioneering contributions to the Arabic language and literature.
On 3 January 2020, Google Doodle celebrated Nabil Ali Mohamed’s 82nd Birthday.