Mr. Romain Murenzi
Executive Director, World Academy of Sciences
Dr. Romain Murenzi has been Director of Division for Science Policy & Capacity Building of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since April 14, 2016. Dr. Murenzi serves as an Executive Director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in Trieste, Italy. He deals with scientific issues and capacity building for all low- and mid-income nations. He was a Minister of Science and Technology, Rwanda, where he was a key architect of its country's education, science and technology renaissance after years of civil war and genocide. Dr. Murenzi has over 30 years of experience in capacity building in science, science policy and diplomacy, in both the public sector and in academia. Since 2011 Prof. Murenzi has served as Executive Director of The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS), a UNESCO programme, based in Trieste, Italy. PhD fellowship opportunities have more than tripled over the course of his tenure, from 150 per year in 2011 to over 460 in 2016. During that time, Dr. Murenzi chaired the UN Secretary General's High-level Panel on a Technology Bank for the LDCs, which studied the scope and functions of such a institution, and became a member of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development. In January 2016, he was appointed by the Secretary-General as a member of the. Dr. Murenzi has been a Director of Global Virus Network since January 16, 2013. He served from 2001 to 2006 as Rwanda's Ministerof Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research, and from March 2006 to July 2009 as Minister in the President's Office in Charge of Science, Technology, and Scientific Research, with responsibilities including Information and Communications Technology. Dr. Murenzi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Burundi (1982), as well as degrees in Physics at the Master's (1986) and doctorate (1990) levels, obtained at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium). In 2013, he obtained a Master of Law degree in Information Technology and Telecommunication from the University of Strathclyde (UK).