SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS PATRICIA LEWIS OF UNITED KINGDOM TO HEAD UN INSTITUTE FOR DISARMAMENT RESEARCH
Press Release
SG/A/641
DC/2587
SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS PATRICIA LEWIS OF UNITED KINGDOM TO HEAD UN INSTITUTE FOR DISARMAMENT RESEARCH
19970702 Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced the appointment of Patricia Lewis of the United Kingdom as Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).Located in Geneva, UNIDIR is an autonomous institution within the framework of the United Nations undertaking independent research on disarmament and related matters, particularly on international security issues. Ms. Lewis succeeds Sverre Lodgaard of Norway.
Since 1989, Ms. Lewis, a nuclear physicist, has been the Executive Director of the Verification Technology Information Centre (VERTIC), a London- based non-governmental organization which provides information on the role of verification technologies and methods for arms control and environmental agreements, with offices also in Tbilisi, Georgia. Prior to directing the Centre, Ms. Lewis was an Information Officer and Senior Political Analyst at VERTIC (1986-1989).
While at VERTIC, Ms. Lewis lectured at the Physics Department of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of London (1991-1992). Prior to that, she lectured at the University of Auckland, New Zealand (1983-1986), and the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom (1978-1981). In 1982, she was a special assistant in the Rehabilitation Centres for Children in Calcutta, India.
Ms. Lewis received her Doctorate in Nuclear Physics from the University of Birmingham in 1981 and her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Manchester in 1978.
Born on 11 April 1957, Ms. Lewis has a daughter and a son.
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