MEXICAN SCIENTIST APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF THE UNESCO DIVISION OF WATER SCIENCES

• Dr. Blanca Jimenez Cisneros has been elected as Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme beginning this August.

Today, the Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, appointed Blanca Jimenez Cisneros, a Mexican citizen, as Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme.

Dr. Jimenez was selected to this senior UNESCO position through an open and public contest. She has had an outstanding academic and professional career and now joins a distinguished group of prominent Mexicans who have held senior positions at UNESCO, including the anthropologist Lourdes Arizpe, sociologists Julio Labastida and Rodolfo Stavenhagen, communicologist Pilar Alvarez Laso and  the well-known Jaime Torres Bodet, who was UNESCO Director General from 1948 to 1952.

The appointment of Dr. Jimenez Cisneros to the UNESCO, the UN agency in charge of education, science and culture, represents an opportunity to strengthen Mexico's commitment to the goals and work of UNESCO, especially in achieving the goal of better utilizing the world’s water resources.