The President of the Republic of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, issued a decree on 7 September 2010, appointing Serageldin in Collège de France, as Professor to the International Chair Savoirs contre pauvreté (Knowledge Against Poverty), for the academic year 2010-2011. The decree appeared in the official journal of the French Republic on 9 September 2010.
Serageldin will give an inaugural lecture on 18 November 2010, entitled Mobilizing Knowledge to Eradicate Hunger.
Established in 1530, Collège de France is a unique educational and research institution, where admission to the lectures and seminars is free and open to all. It does not set examinations nor does it award diplomas. About five thousand people attend the various lectures each year. Its fifty-two professors are chosen from among the foremost researchers of the day, and each year the Collège elects a leading scientist or scholar from any part of the world for the International Chair.