The Nazli Gad-el-Mawla Award was given for outstanding contributions to cancer control by an individual from a country with limited resources. Nazli Gad-el-Mawla, was a pioneer Egyptian oncologist, who, as a member of a small group of oncologists working at the National Cancer Institute in Cairo in the 1960s and '70s helped to build the institute into one of the premier cancer centers in the Middle East. She founded the Department of Medical Oncology in 1970 and, as part of it, developed a strong pediatric oncology program. She is known particularly for her work in the chemotherapy of cancer of the bilharzial bladder, which accounts for some 25% of all cancer in Egypt, and in hematological malignancies. She was highly respected both by her colleagues in Egypt and also by the international community of oncologists in which she became increasingly active throughout her career.