Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Natural Sciences
Shamila Nair-Bedouelle took up her duties as Assistant Director-General for the Natural Sciences at UNESCO on 1 April 2019. She came to UNESCO from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), where she had served as Director of the OzonAction programme since 2012. Responsible for implementing the Multilateral Fund for the Montreal Protocol, she had coordinated a unique network of 147 national Ozone Action offices, providing developing countries with scientific and technical advice as to which alternative technologies to choose to the chemical substances depleting the Ozone Layer. A strong advocate for enhancing womens’ role in science and engineering, she launched UNEP’s first training programme for women technicians.
Shamila Nair-Bedouelle holds a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Capetown in South Africa. She pursued her research career at the Institut Pasteur in Paris from January 1992 onwards then within the pharmaceutical industry at the MIT University Park in Boston, USA, from January 1994 until January 1996, when she integrated the French National Institue for Medical Research (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, INSERM). She has published in numerous scientific journals and is the co-inventor of several patents.
Dear Dr. Nair Bedouelle,
Please receive kind regards from the representative of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) to the UN in New York, Mrs. Andrea Ostheimer. I am reaching out to you today with a request for a blog contribution on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
KAS is one of Germany’s six political foundations engaged in civic education and support to democratization processes worldwide. In September 2021 we started our UNAgora Blog in which we take up topics of relevance for peace & security, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. We mostly publish on the occasion of international days (https://www.kas.de/de/web/newyork/un-agora-blog). In our upcoming blog in January, for example, Dr. Leonardo Garnier, the UN Special Adviser on the Transforming Education Summit is reflecting on the International Day of Education.
We would like to invite you, as the Assistant Director-General for the Natural Sciences at UNESCO, to contribute with a blog post that highlights the significance of this relevant day.
The text should have approximately 2000 words. Some contributions of the past have been longer, and we don’t mind, as long as it is an interesting read.
Please, let us know whether your agenda will allow contribute to our UNAgora Blog.
We would be really honored to publish you on the Int. Day of Women and Girls in Science. Please, do not hesitate to contact me in case you might need further information.
Best,