The Hamburg University of Technology (in German Technische Universität Hamburg, abbreviated TUHH (HH as acronym of Hamburg state) or TU Hamburg) is a public research university in Germany. The university was founded in 1978 and in 1982/83 lecturing followed. Around 110 senior lecturers/professors and 1,410 members of staff (802 scientists, including externally funded researchers) work at the TUHH.
It is located in Harburg, a district in the south of Hamburg.
Mohamed Atta (1 September 1968 – 11 September 2001) was an Egyptian engineer and terrorist hijacker for al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, he was the ringleader of the September 11 attacks and served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which he flew into the North Tower of the original World Trade Center as part of coordinated suicide attacks. Aged 33, he was the oldest of the 19 hijackers who took part in the mission. Before the attacks, he worked as a civil engineer.
Born and raised in Egypt, Atta studied architecture at Cairo University, graduating in 1990, and pursued postgraduate studies in Germany at the Hamburg University of Technology. In Hamburg, Atta became involved with the al-Quds Mosque where he met Marwan al-Shehhi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ziad Jarrah, together forming the Hamburg cell. Atta disappeared from Germany for periods of time, embarking on the hajj in 1995 but also meeting Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan from late 1999 to early 2000. Atta and the other Hamburg cell members were recruited by bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for a "planes operation" in the United States.