Dr Moneef R. Al-Zou'bi

Co-Founder and Member of the Board of Directors

Dr Moneef R. Zou’bi has been active in global Sustainable Development particularly through Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) for 30 years. Born in Amman, Jordan, he studied for his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Civil Engineering Technology and Management at Brighton and Loughborough Universities in the United Kingdom, 1980- 1987. After becoming involved in global development issues, he successfully pursued further post-graduate work at the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Malaya.
    Dr Zou’bi currently serves as the Science Advisor to the Interaction Council (IAC) which is an independent international organization that mobilizes the experience of a group of former heads of state and statesmen from all over the world. Previously, he worked for the Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) (an international scientific NGO based in Jordan and affiliated to the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC)) firmly positioning the IAS on the international scientific and technological collaboration landscape. After serving in various capacities at the IAS, he served as Director General IAS (May 1998 – September 2019), and then as Emeritus Director General since October 2019.
    Over the last three decades, he has devoted all his energies to humanitarian causes, to sustainable development, to science and innovation advocacy at all levels, and to bridging scientific and technological, development, and political divides between countries, cultures, and civilizations, and has implemented numerous activities in such domains.
     He has worked extensively on science and technology issues, science education, and sustainable development, as well as on water issues from a Middle Eastern perspective, and has lectured on such topics in over 30 countries including Canada and the United States. He has published over 60 papers and edited and co-edited 20 books on topics such as higher education, the environment as well as transformational technologies. In 2010, he co-authored the groundbreaking Arab States Chapter of the 2010 UNESCO Science Report that foresaw the advent of the Arab Spring and the associated turmoil in the Middle East. In 2015 and 2020, he was commissioned again to be an author of the Arab States Chapter of the 2015 and 2020 editions of the prestigious UNESCO Science Reports.
    Apart from his work-related interests, he is interested in international affairs, the history of science, science diplomacy as well as sustainable development and water issues in the Islamic world.
    Moneef has visited more than 60 countries and enjoys high-level contact in most; he speaks Arabic, English and some French, and is a member of many international organizations including the UNESCO International Centre for South-South Co-operation in Science, Technology, and Innovation (ISTIC), Malaysia; the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS); World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST); and is a Founding Fellow, of the Academy of Engineering and Technology for the Developing World (AETDEW), based in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the University of California International Water Forum, USA, since 2007; member (Ex-Officio) of the Council of the IAS since 2009; and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), since 2013; member - Board of Judges for the Templeton Prize involved in the selection of the Templeton Prize Laureate for 2018, 2019 and 2020, and member of the International Advisory Board, Economic Cooperation Organization Science Foundation (ECOSF).