Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show Dr Najat Mokhtar PhD, Deputy Director General & Head of Department of Nuclear Sciences & Apps, IAEA
Dr. Najat Mokhtar Ph.D. is Deputy Director General, and Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA - https://www.iaea.org/), an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Mokhtar was Director of the Division for Asia and the Pacific in the Department of Technical Cooperation of IAEA, and from 2012 to 2014, Dr. Mokhtar was the Section Head of Nutrition and Health related Environmental Studies, Human Health Division, at IAEA. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Mokhtar was the Director of Science and Technology at the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology in Morocco, where she coordinated the national strategy on Education and Research. She worked as University Professor and Research Director at the University Ibn Tufail in Morocco for more than 20 years. Dr. Mokhtar was also a Technical Officer at the IAEA from 2001 to 2007. Throughout her professional career, Dr. Mokhtar has contributed to the publication of several books (including the forward to the recent “Ionising Radiation and Mankind”), numerous peer reviewed publications, and she worked as a consultant for various organizations and national and international institutions (including Morocco's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, the World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, USAID, WHO, and UNICEF). She was mandated by the Moroccan government as national coordinator to develop a "National Nutrition Strategy in Morocco 2011-2019", including training, education and research. In March 2011, she was elected President of the Moroccan Society of Nutrition. Dr. Mokhtar holds a PhD in Nutrition and Endocrinology from Laval University in Canada and has a doctorate in food sciences from the University of Dijon in France. She has done her postdoctoral training as a Fulbright fellow at Johns Hopkins University in the United States of America.