Presidents

Dr Loyd Grossman CBE is a British-American author, entrepreneur and cultural campaigner. He has a lifelong interest in history the arts and heritage and did his postgraduate education at the London School of Economics (MScEcon) and Magdalene College, Cambridge (PhD). His past appointments include being a former Commissioner of English Heritage and of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, a former Commissioner of the Museums and Galleries Commission and having served on the boards of the British School at Rome and the British Institute of Florence and as Chairman of the Churches Conservation Trust. He is currently Chairman of The Royal Parks and Chair of Gresham College and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society.

Loyd is keen to help the Egypt Exploration Society redevelop its London premises by actively supporting its Building the Future Campaign. He has hosted various events for the EES as Vice President and continues to engage new audiences with the incredible heritage of Egypt.

Professor Alan B Lloyd was Chairman of the Egypt Exploration Society from 1994 until 2007. Prof Lloyd served as President of the EES from 10 December 2011 until 26 November 2022. He retired in 2006 from his post as Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Swansea. He participated in EES excavations at North Saqqara in 1972–3 and with the Society’s Saqqara Epigraphic Survey which began work in 1976 on a series of Old Kingdom tombs in the Teti Pyramid Cemetery. Professor Lloyd is an authority on the writings of the historian Herodotus and has an extensive publication record. He has served as Editor of the EES Excavation Memoirs and edited the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology from 1979 to 1985.

From 2000-2014, Professor Doris Behrens-Abouseif was the Nasser D Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She has published widely on the subjects of the history of Islamic architecture and decorative arts, urbanism,  waqf (pious endowments), Islamic cultural history, concepts of aesthetics and Orientalism and is regarded around the world as the authority on Mamluk Egyptian history. Her work has also considered the role of ancient Egyptian architecture and its incorporation into Islamic monuments as well as Medieval accounts of Egypt’s ancient past. Her grandfather was the Egyptian Egyptologist Hakim Abouseif (1889-1951), and she continues to explore her personal history through her research. 

She was elected President of the Egypt Exploration Society on 26 November 2022. 

Professor Harry S Smith first worked in Egypt with Professor Emery on the excavation of tomb 3505 at Saqqara. From 1959-65 he worked at Buhen Fortress and Qasr Ibrim and directed the Egyptian Nubian Survey and excavations at Kor with his wife, Hazel. In 1963 he became Petrie Museum Curator at University College London before being appointed to the Edwards Chair of Egyptology in 1970. From 1964-76 he worked at the Saqqara Sacred Animal Necropolis and from 1977-88 directed surveys and excavations at the Anubieion and Memphis. Since retiring from UCL in 1993 he has collaborated with Sue Davies on publishing the wonderful SAN site, objects and demotic documents.

Professor John Tait is also Edwards Professor of Egyptology Emeritus at UCL, having retired from his post in 2010. He served three three-year terms on the Society’s Committee from 1989, and was then Vice-Chairman from 2002–2005. He has assisted with the Society’s publications in various editorial roles from 1984 up to the present. In the 1970s, he joined several seasons of the EES excavations at North Saqqara, collaborating with Professor Harry Smith in work on Demotic papyri from the site. His research currently focuses on the role of writing and of literature in Egyptian society from the New Kingdom to Christian Egypt, and work in progress on publishing Demotic papyri includes further material from the Society’s work at North Saqqara.

Professor Kenneth Kitchen is Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool. He is one of the leading experts on the Egyptian New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Periods and has written over 250 books and journal articles on this and other subjects since the mid-1950s. His Ramesside Inscriptions series and seminal volume The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt are standard reference works known universally by the abbreviations KRI and TIP respectively and he has been described by The Times as “the very architect of Egyptian chronology”. Professor Kitchen joined the Society in 1950 and was the first to be interviewed for the EES Oral History of Egyptology Project.

Professor Rosalie David has achieved world renown for her pioneering work in investigating mummies using non-destructive techniques. She is Emeritus Professor of Egyptology at The University of Manchester, and was formerly Director of the university’s KNH Centre for Biological and Forensic Studies in Egyptology. Professor David was the former Keeper of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum, and is Director of the International Mummy Database and Director of the Schistosomiasis Investigation Project. Her research work into this disease, a scourge in the ancient as well as the modern world, was recognised recently with a prestigious award from the Anglo-French Medical Society. Professor David is the author of numerous books and articles on mummies and the religious practices of the ancient Egyptians, a presenter of TV and radio programmes, and an extremely popular lecturer all over the world. Rosalie David was the first woman professor in Egyptology in Britain, and the first to receive an OBE in recognition of her services in Egyptology.

The Cultural Counsellor at the Egyptian Embassy in London is ex-officio a Vice-President of the Society.