By the 1970s, the decline of the built environment of Muslim societies and loss of cultural identity had become apparent to others as well. From the outset the Aga Khan recruited a number of people to help define the award. Among the first were Oleg Grabar a professor at the Harvard Department of Fine Arts, William Porter then Dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, architectural historian Renata Holod, and Pakistani architect Hasan Udhin Khan. They were joined by others, including Nader Ardalan, Hugh Casson, Charles Correa, and Hassan Fathy.