The Geological Society of America, an association consisting of 16,000 geologists worldwide, has established the Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert Research. The award is named in honour of Farouk El-Baz, Research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University in the United States. It has been created "to encourage young scientists to strive for excellence in arid land studies." El-Baz served on the ICTP Scientific Council between 1988 and 1993 and has been actively involved in Centre activities since 1984.