Current position: Director and UNESCO Representative to the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea
Course: MSc Water Resources Technology and Management, 1992, PhD Civil Engineering 1995, DSc 2018
Expertise: This mentor can help students who are interested in international development and UN careers.
Professor Dr Shahbaz Khan is currently Director and Representative of UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office for East Asia in Beijing. He was previously Director, UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific based at Jakarta Indonesia. He joined UNESCO in 2008 as Chief of Water and Sustainable Development Section at UNESCO Division of Water Sciences based at Paris. His key leadership and management areas at UNESCO include science capacity building and policy advice across the region. He has also coordinated key programs such as Water Education for Sustainable Development, Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy (HELP), Ecohydrology, MAB and Water and Energy Nexus.
He was previously Research Leader of Irrigated Systems and Rural Water Use areas of CSIRO Australia and Professor of Hydrology and Director of International Centre of Water at the Charles Sturt University and Research Director Irrigation Systems at CSIRO and Programme Leader, System Harmonisation for Regional Irrigation Business Partnerships at the Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures, Australia.
His work has been widely recognised e.g. 2019 China Friendship Award, Great Wall Friendship Award China 2017, FEIAP Engineer of the Year Award 2016, UNESCO Team Award for Managing Hydro Hazards 2009, Land and Water Australia’s Eureka Prize 2007, CSIRO Medal 2007, Biennial Medal of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand. He has widely published in the area of water, environment and sustainable development and received several outstanding publications awards.
Specialties: Sustainable development, water resources law and policy, environmental economics, mathematical modelling, senior management, engineering, SETI, research and development, Ethics of AI.
To seek support from Shahbaz, apply now to the Alumni Leadership Mentoring programme.