Dr. Hamza is one of the multitude of foreign scientists trained in America. He came to the United States in the 1960's. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Florida State University earning degrees in nuclear physics. He spent some time teaching in Florida before going back to his native land of Iraq in 1970.
 
When he arrived in Iraq, he was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a great deal of interest in Iraq in his specialty of nuclear physics. Specifically, there was interest in applying that knowledge to nuclear technology research and nuclear weaponry. Dr. Hamza spent several decades in Iraq, building Iraq's nuclear weapons program, and then the basic building blocks for what Saddam hoped would be an Iraqi nuclear weapon.