Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2003

Speakers

Prof. Mohan Munasinghe
Chief Energy Advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka and Minister-Counsellor

Appointments and professional experience
Prof. Munasinghe has over 35 years experience working in the international development area, with field experience in most developing countries. Presently, he is Honorary Chief Energy Advisor to the Govt. of Sri Lanka, Chairman, Munasinghe Inst. for Development, Colombo, Vice Chair, Intergov. Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Geneva, Chancellor, The Int. Water Academy, Oslo, and Visiting Professor, Inst. of Advanced Studies, UN Univ., Tokyo. Until 2003, he was Senior Advisor on Sustainable Development, World Bank, Wash. DC. Previously, he was Division Chief for Environmental Policy, and Division Chief for Energy and Infrastructure, World Bank.
During 1990-92, he served as Advisor to the US President's Council on Environmental Quality (PCEQ). From 1982 to 1987, Prof. Munasinghe was the Senior Energy Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka, implementing the national energy strategy. He also developed the Sri Lanka computer policy, as Chairman, Computer and Info. Tech. Council (CINTEC), and served on the Presidential Commission that determined national telecommunications policy. From 1982 to 1987, he was Board Member, Natural Resources, Energy and Science Auth. of Sri Lanka; and Governor, Arthur Clarke Centre for Modern Techn., Sri Lanka. Since 1972, he has also served as expert-advisor to many world bodies, including the UN, UNDP, UN Univ., UNESCO, ESCAP, ECLA, USAID, CIDA, IDRC, EEC, IAEA, ADB, AfDB, IDB, etc. He serves on the Editorial Boards of over a dozen international periodicals.

Academic and scholastic
Mohan Munasinghe was born in Sri Lanka in 1945, and received a BA (Hons.) and MA in Engineering from Cambridge Univ., U.K. in 1967/8, SM and Prof. EE in Elec. Eng. from the Mass. Inst. of Tech., U.S.A. in 1969, PhD in Solid State Physics from McGill Univ., Canada, in 1973, and MA in Economics from Concordia Univ., Canada, in 1975.
He has won a number of international prizes and honours. In 1998, the green award for exceptional contributions to sustainable development was presented to him at the Sixth World Congress of the Int. Federation of Environmental Journalists. He received the international best treatise award and medal for sustainable water resource management from the Int. Foundation for Water Science and Tech. at the 1994 World Water Congress in Abu Dhabi. In 1990, two commemorative volumes of his selected papers in energy and electricity were issued, with felicitations from eminent experts as well as 20 leading international journals. He is also the recepient of the international prize for outstanding work in electric power and energy systems analysis and pricing awarded in 1988 at the Fifth Latin American and Caribbean Energy Conference, and the annual award for exceptional contributions to energy research and policy applications, presented in 1987 by the Int. Assoc. for Energy Economics, U.S.A. In 1985, he received the Sinha Gold Medal for outstanding scientific achievement in Sri Lanka, from the Lions Int. Org. His academic awards include the 1966 J. W. Beauchamp Prize from the Inst. of Elec. Eng. (UK), and the 1968 Albert M. Grass Prize at MIT (USA).
Prof. Munasinghe is a Fellow of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics - Royal Swedish Acad. of Sciences, Third World Acad. of Sciences, Italy (FTWAS), National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka (FNASSL), Royal Society for Arts, UK (FRSA), International Water Academy, Norway (FIWA), Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK (FIEE), and Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka (FIESL).

Publications and teaching
He is the author of several hundred technical papers in well?known scientific journals; and over 60 scholarly books. He has taught university courses for the past 30 years, on energy, water, resource management, and environmental economics, in Sri Lanka (Moratuwa Univ., Univ. of Colombo), Canada (McGill Univ., Concordia Univ.), and the US (State Univ. of NY, American Univ., George Washington Univ., Univ. of Pennsylvania) He has organized and conducted international training seminars on the environmental economics, energy, water and information technology, in various parts of the world, for thousands of senior officials from most developing countries.

Other
Prof. Munasinghe has represented Sri Lanka (Juniors) and Cambridge University in lawn tennis and won a number of Sri Lanka National and other titles. His interests include swimming, wind surfing, chess, bridge, amateur astronomy, saxophone playing, tai-chi, and meditation.