Catarina Belo, an associate Professor of philosophy at the American University in Cairo (AUC), completed her BA in Philosophy at University of Lisbon in 1997 and in Arabic and Islamic Studies, at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 2000. She received her PhD in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford in 2004.

She specializes in medieval Islamic philosophy, particularly on Avicenna’s and Averroes’ physics and metaphysics. Other interests include medieval Islamic theology (kalam) and medieval Christian philosophy with a focus on the thought of St.Thomas Aquinas. She has also conducted research on German Idealism, in particular, Hegel’s philosophy. In addition, she has studied the interaction of philosophy and religion in the middle ages and in Hegel’s works. She is the author of “Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes” (2007), “O essencial sobre Averróis” (2007), “Averroes and Hegel on Philosophy and Religion” (2013) and “Spirit in Philosophy: A Metaphysical Inquiry” (2019). Her book “Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes” was translated to Turkish under the name of “İbni Sina ve İbni Rüşd- Belirlenimcilik ve Rastlantı”. Professor Belo has published in many academic journals and has received several international awards.

Prof. İskender Öksüz completed his undergraduate studies at Ege University in 1966, his MS in 1968 and PhD in 1969 at Yale University under the supervision of Prof. Oktay Sinanoğlu. In addition to various academic and administrative appointments in METU and Gazi University in Turkey and, University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, he also served as a Member of the Turkish Atomic Energy Commission and Advisor to the Minister on Atomic Energy. Professor Öksüz has widely published on politics and sociology in addition to his main major Chemistry.