The Sayed El-Sayed Oral History, dated 2002, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between El-Sayed and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on May 7, 2002. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include El-Sayed’s education and early career, his first grant from the National Science Foundation to study primary productivity in Drake Passage aboard an Argentine ship, his subsequent research in the Weddell Sea, his research in the Antarctic related to phytoplankton, krill, primary productivity, and the effect of ozone depletion on the marine ecosystem, including the effect of ultra-violet radiation on phytoplankton, his involvement with the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), and the origins of the Biological Investigations of Marine Antarctic Systems and Stocks (BIOMASS) program and his involvement.