Adnan Shihab-Eldin is director of the Research Division and acting for the secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretariat, Vienna, Austria. From 1970 to 1980, Dr. Shihab-Eldin was assistant professor of physics and later vice rector of academic affairs at Kuwait University. In 1976, he also became director general of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, where he served until 1986. More recently he has served as director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Regional Office for Science and Technology in the Arab States, Paris, France; as the UNESCO representative to Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen also based in Paris; and as director of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Division for Africa, East Asia, and Pacific, Department of Technical Cooperation, Vienna, Austria. He is a member of numerous professional societies and has served on the board of directors of more than thirty organizations, including the United Nations Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Development, The Arab Thought Forum, and the International Scientific Council for Science and Technology Policy Development, UNESCO. Dr. Shihab-Eldin holds a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.