Gamal Serour is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research (IICPSR) at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, where he is former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. He was awarded the United Nation Population Award institutional category in 2013, Nile Prize for Science in 2018 and a national award for combating female genital mutilation from Egypt’s National Council for Women in 2020. 

He was President of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 2009 to 2012, as well as a member and then Chair of the Committee for the Ethical Aspects of Human Reproduction and Women’s Health 1994 to 2006. 

He served as a Jhpiego consultant 1976 to 1986, member of the Medical Advisory Panel of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee 1999 to 2005 and International Bioethics Committee 2006 to 2009, and in Egypt as a Judge Member of the Supreme Court for morality 2002 to 2004. 

With the World Health Organization, he was a member and then Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group for the special programme on human reproduction from 2011 to 2018 and since 2017 has served as Co-Chair of the Research Ethics Review Committee at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Professor Serour was Secretary-General of the International Federation of Fertility Societies 2014 to 2017 and a member of the Guttmacher−Lancet Commission on the Sustainable Development Goals 2016 to 2018. He has been a member of Islamic Research Council Al Azhar since 2019, and a member of the UNFPA Civil Society Advisory Panel for several years. He participated in the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, the regional review for ICPD+25 and the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 in 2019. 

He conducted a vast number of training workshops for Imams, religious leaders, parliamentarians, political leaders, non-governmental organizations and health care professionals on sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence and population policies in Egypt, Asia and Africa. He has authored and co-authored over 370 papers, 30 chapters and 18 books in national and international publications.