The award was made at the 31st Pio Manzù Conference in Rimini, Italy, on Sunday (30 October), in recognition of “the unparalleled and highly prestigious international impact of his dedicated strategic commitment” to scientific and energy matters, to which the major part of his professional career has been devoted.
``The most demanding responsibility facing the world today, that of governing the oil market, is, to a large part, in the hands of OPEC,’’ the citation of the award said, adding that as ``Secretary General (Acting) of OPEC, Dr. Adnan Shihab Eldin is currently responsible for the complex and delicate task of directing the work of OPEC’s Secretariat in shaping the policies of the Organization and its oil exporting member countries.’’
Dr Shihab-Eldin joined OPEC’s Vienna-based Secretariat as Director of its Research Division in 2001, and this year has been Acting for the Secretary General.
In 1999-2001, he was Director of the Division for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Department of Technical Cooperation, at the International Atomic Energy Agency, and, in 1991-99, Director of UNESCO’s Regional Office for Science and Technology as well as UNESCO’s Representative in Egypt, Sudan and Yemen. An earlier post he held for ten years was Director General of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.
Dr Shihab-Eldin, born in 1943 and a Kuwaiti physicist and nuclear engineer, is a member of numerous professional associations and has served as a board member of, and advisor to, many international organisations, foundations and companies around the world.
The Scientific Committee of the Pio Manzù International Research Centre, whose members are leading international scientists, selected him for the award because of his “commitment to encouraging a cooperative approach and to finding solutions of mutual benefit and of wide value to the international community to successfully meet future energy needs.”
The Centre, whose General Secretariat is in Verucchio, Italy, is a non-governmental organization in general consultative status with the United Nations. It has been operating since 1969 as an institute for the in-depth study of the main economic and scientific aspects of the relationship between man and the environment.