He led the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc from 2000 to 2005 in addition to serving as president of the Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering at Zagazig University.
Seth Lazar, a philosophy professor in Canberra, took time out from his academic career in 2009 to travel around Africa with his wife, Lu, stopping at towns whose names begin with every letter of the alphabet, from Agadir in Morocco to Zagazig in Egypt.
Mr Morsi claims to have disliked life in America, but two of his sons were born there and he lingered for several years after earning a doctorate before heading home to teach at the University of Zagazig, up the road from Edwa.