El-Naggar installed as first holder of Beyer Chair

USC Provost Michael Quick praised Moh El-Naggar, assistant professor of physics, biological sciences, and chemistry, as a “great contributor” to USC Dornsife for both his research and his teaching. The remarks came as part of a Nov. 10 ceremony held at Town and Gown on USC’s University Park campus where El-Naggar was installed as the inaugural holder of the Robert D. Beyer (’81) Early Career Chair in Natural Sciences.

Congratulating El-Naggar, Quick, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs and professor of biological sciences at USC Dornsife, said he could not think of anyone more deserving of an early career chair.

A key to exceptional scholarship

“Endowed chairs mean so much,” Quick said. “They’re important for us to attract and retain the best scholars. They allow us to recognize great work. But most importantly, they allow scholars to be risk takers because they now have an underpinning of support that gives them the freedom to do the extra work we really expect of great faculty.”

USC Dornsife Dean Steve Kay agreed and emphasized the importance of endowed chairs that are reserved specifically for faculty in the early stages of their careers.

“At USC, we take pride in seeking out and recruiting promising scholars who are on the rise in their careers, and then nurturing them to greatness,” he said. “Our two Nobel laureates in the Department of Chemistry, for example, George Olah and Arieh Warshel, made the majority of their discoveries while working in our laboratories. Of course, we have the same high hopes for Professor Moh El-Naggar as the inaugural holder of the Robert D. Beyer Early Career Chair in Natural Sciences.”

A biophysicist studying energy conversion and charge transmission at the interface between living cells and synthetic surfaces, El-Naggar researches how living, single-celled organisms are able to move electrons to generate energy. His scholarship has the potential to lead to the development of new hybrid materials and renewable energy technologies that combine nature with nanotechnology — by turning bacteria into power for clean energy devices, for example.

In 2013, El-Naggar was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by President Barack Obama for his pioneering research. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.

“I am over the moon about my installation as the Robert D. Beyer Early Career Chair, and I feel that we will look back at this moment as a turning point in our burgeoning effort to lay the physical foundations of processes that are central to life itself,” El-Naggar said. “I am eternally grateful to Bob and Catherine for their vision and generosity. We look forward to having them alongside us on our journey.”

A long and distinguished career            

Beyer graduated from USC Marshall School of Business with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration in 1981. He is chair of Chaparal Investments LLC, a private investment firm and holding company that he founded in 2009, and a director of three Fortune 500 companies: The Allstate Corporation, The Kroger Co. and Leucadia National Corporation. In 2008, he was selected as an Outstanding Director by the Financial Times. Previously, he was CEO and a member of the board of directors of The TCW Group Inc., a diversified investment management firm.

Paying tribute to Beyer’s “incredible generosity,” Quick said, “He gets it. He understands the importance of these kinds of things, and it is really wonderful that he has agreed to support Moh and his work through this early career chair in the sciences.

“Bob has been an incredible supporter of the University, not just with his philanthropy, but also with his time. He is currently a member of our Dornsife Board of Councilors. I know the College is better for it and the University is better for it.”

During the ceremony, Kay presented Beyer with a commemorative, engraved crystal book as a token of USC’s appreciation for his generosity. “This crystal book represents the many great discoveries to be made as a result of your support,” Kay said.

He concluded the installation ceremony with the presentation of a second commemorative, engraved crystal book to El-Naggar. 

“As leader of the NanoBio Lab at USC Dornsife, Moh wants to know how microorganisms can serve as the basis for the next wave of electronics,” Kay said. “I have no doubt Moh is destined for greatness in the exciting, multidisciplinary and ever-growing field of nanobiology.”

An expert in an exciting and growing field

El-Naggar earned his bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn. and master’s and doctoral degrees from the division of engineering and applied science of Caltech. He joined USC Dornsife in 2006 as a postdoctoral researcher, bringing a biophysical perspective to the laboratory of Ken Nealson, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies and professor of earth sciences and biological sciences.

Since then, El-Naggar has published several seminal articles on bacterial electron transport, establishing himself as an expert in an exciting and growing field. 

In addition to his Presidential Early Career Award, he received a Department of Defense Young Investigator Program Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in 2010, and he was named one of Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10” — the magazine’s annual honor roll of the 10 most promising young scientists whose innovations will change the world — in 2012. That same year he received USC’s Raubenheimer Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.