UNESCO Director-General appoints a new Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of IHP

Mr Abdin Mohamed Ali Salih has been appointed by the Director-General as the Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP). He will serve in this capacity until the recruitment for the Director and Secretary post is completed.

An academic with several visiting professorships and senior university appointments, Mr Salih has served in various capacities within UNESCO at Headquarters and in the field offices over the past 20 years. After serving as Regional Hydrologist for the Arab States from 1993 to 1999, he moved to headquarters as the Deputy Secretary of IHP where he served from 1999 until his appointment in 2003 as Representative and Director of the UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office. In 2007 he retired from UNESCO. During his years of service Mr Salih led the formulation of various phases of the IHP Programme and significantly contributed to the success in extending its extrabudgetary resources and activities.

Mr Salih returned to UNESCO as the Interim Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Cairo for a short duration in 2008. Later in that year, and while representing Sudan to the 18th session of the IHP Intergovernmental Council, he was elected unanimously as Chairperson of the IHP Intergovernmental Council, representing the Arab States. As customary, he remained as ex officio member of the IHP Bureau during the 19th session of the Council and until August 2011.

Mr Salih, who currently holds a full professorship at the University of Khartoum, has a B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Khartoum, Sudan (1969) and a DIC and Ph.D from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, UK (1972). His fields of interest are hydrology, hydraulics, and water and land resources management under arid conditions.

The Division of Water Sciences and IHP welcome him back with open arms.

Access to Mr Salih's full CV online