Regional Hydrologist
UNESCO Regional Office, Cairo
bio
Dr. Bisher Imam has a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Aleppo, MS and Ph.D in watershed hydrology from University of Arizona. During his academic career, he served as research assistant at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), as the associate-director of the NASA funded Hydrologic Data and Information System (HyDIS) (1996-2003) at the University of Arizona, and was a founding member of the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (CHRS) at the University of California, Irvine (2003-2010).
Dr. Imam joined UNESCO as a senior consultant in 2010. He served between 2012 and 2014 as the Deputy Secretary of UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme at UNESCO Headquarters. In 2015, He began field service as Regional Hydrologist for the Arab States at UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Sciences for the Arab States in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt. As regional hydrologist and the responsible officer for the implementation of IHP in the Arab Region, he has been focussing on building partnerships, policy advice, and capacity building of the water sector jointly with partner Sister UN Agencies, and relevant regional entities working on water issues.
He is the Author and co-author of more than 60 peer reviewed publications on topics ranging from water resources management, remote sensing and hydrological processes, hydrologic modelling and climate change impacts on water resources. Dr. Imam served on several NASA, NOAA, and NSF panels and as a member of the US National Research Council’s committee on flood maps.