Lamia al-Gailani-Werr

Lamia was born in Baghdad in 1938, and emerged as one of the world's foremost historians of ancient Mesopotamia. She fought to maintain her country's legacy by fostering academic connections under various Iraqi governments, and after 2003 led the charge to preserve cultural heritage in Iraq. She was pivotal to the National Museum's reconstruction, where she had worked as a curator in the 1960s. She also oversaw the founding of the Basrah Museum.