Ira M. Lapidus is an Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic History at The University of California at Berkeley.

Lapidus continued taking classes in Middle Eastern and Islamic history, and upon graduation entered a career in academia.

He has trained graduate students in History, Anthropology, Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, Political Science, Geography and other disciplines.

Professor Lapidus has also lectured widely to public audiences, and has frequently been interviewed for television, radio and newspaper articles.

Over the course of his academic career, he has done research in England, France, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, former Soviet Union, Pakistan, and India, and has traveled extensively in Muslim regions of North Africa, the Middle East, former Soviet Central Asia, India, Indonesia and western China.