President of honor of SimpLAC 2002

Mr. Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information of the UNESCO, accept to be the President of Honor of the Latin American and Caribbean Symposium on "Education, Science and Culture in the Information Society", SimPLAC 2002.

Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director-General of the UNESCO in letter directed to the President of the Cuban National Commission of the UNESCO, dated in September of 2001, ratifies the auspice of UNESCO to the event SimpLAC 2002, to take place in Havana, Cuba from the February 18 to 21, 2002. In the missive he gives to know the confirmation of Mr. Khan to be President of Honor of the Symposium.

Abdul Waheed Khan, was born in the India in 1947. He obtained the titles of M.Sc. in Agriculture from Agra University of the India (1965), M.Sc. in Agricultural Journalism (1970) and Ph.D. in Mass Communication (1973) in the University of Wisconsin, Madison EEUU.

With only 26 years he held the position of Associate Director of the Agricultural Communication Centre at the G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India, where he worked on the development of a modern multimedia center for the communication of agricultural innovations to farmers. He worked too as expert in Communication and Population Education, in the FAO. In the ends of the decade of the 80 and principles of that of the 90 he developed and managed one of the largest state-of-the-art electronic media centers in Asia.

During his career, he has provided consultancy services to several international agencies such as the Institute for Broadcasting Development in Kuala Lumpur; the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, the Organization of Asian Productivity in Tokyo, the World Bank in Washington and the Asian Development Bank.

Mr. Khan was President of the Asian Association of Open Universities and at the moment he is member of several professional associations. He has also published articles related with his specialization fields and he has deserved several prizes and distinctions such as "Distinguished Service Award", of the Commonwealth of Learning, as well as the "Indian 2000 Millennium Award for Education and World Peace".