Professor Moubasher, the godfather of mycology in Egypt and Arab countries, is a great loss to mycology in the region. Born on 8 August 1929 in the Sharkia Governorate of Egypt, he graduated from Cairo University in 1951, gaining his PhD there in 1958 and a DSc in 1996. He was appointed as a Lecturer in Botany at Assiut University in 1959, where he remained for the rest of his career rising to be a Vice- President of the University in 1984 prior to his retirement in 1989 when he was appointed Emeritus Professor.