Gamal Mokhtar, founder of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transportation (AASTM) died on Sunday at the age of 90.

Mokhtar founded and directed the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport AASTM in Alexandria in 1972. It was Egypt's first academy to offer a bachelor’s programme in civilian maritime transportation.

The student body of the AASTM grew from 500 at the time of its founding, to over 20,000 students, making it one of the biggest private universities in Egypt and the Arab world today.

Born in Cairo in 1928, Mokhtar received a bachelor’s degree in Marine Studies from Egypt's Naval Academy in 1949 and a master’s in naval studies from the Soviet Union in 1960.

He became the first Egyptian to captain a fully Egyptian crew on a Soviet-made submarine, in 1957.

He was appointed in 1960 as the commander of the submarines division of the Egyptian Naval Forces.  

He became head of the Egyptian Navy Academy in 1967.

Gamal Mokhtar was appointed as a chairman of the International Association of Maritime Universities in 2003.