Najat Mokhtar, Deputy Director General and head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Havana, Nov 15 (RHC) Najat Mokhtar, Deputy Director General and head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit Cuba from Nov. 19 to 25.
The Network of Nuclear Communicators of Cuba also informed that during her stay in our country the expert will visit several centers that carry out projects with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and will hold meetings with directors of several ministries.
One of them will be the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the others will be those of Public Health, Agriculture, and the Interior, as well as with the representation of the United Nations Development Program, accredited in Havana.
In Cuba, she will visit the National Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology, the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, and the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the latter in the neighboring province of Mayabeque.
Furthermore, she will visit the National Center for Agricultural Health, coordinator of the Integrated Measures against Zoonotic Diseases project in the nation also in Mayabeque.
She is expected to make a presentation on this IAEA initiative to strengthen global preparedness for future pandemics such as COVID-19.
According to specialists, the project is based on the agency's experience in helping countries use nuclear and basic techniques to rapidly detect pathogens that cause transboundary animal diseases, including those transmitted to humans.
At the Center for Environmental Studies in Cienfuegos, she will receive information about the projects and tour the laboratories equipped with the most advanced technologies, thanks to the cooperation with his agency.
She will also speak about the Nuclear Technology for Plastic Pollution Control (NUTEC Plastics) initiative, based on IAEA activities to address plastic pollution through recycling with radiation technologies and marine monitoring with isotopic tracking techniques.
CEAC is the coordinator of this project, although its periplus includes the Isotope Center in Mayabeque, the Cancer Control Office, subordinated to MINSAP, and the Center for Surgical Medical Research.
The latter institution has installed a cyclotron for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer, which has been supported by the IAEA.
On January 1, 2019, Najat Mokhtar was appointed Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications and was previously in charge of the Division for Asia and the Pacific in the Department of Technical Cooperation.
From 2012 to 2014, she was in charge of the Nutrition and Health Related Environmental Studies Section, Human Health Division, and from 2010-2012, she served as Director of Science and Technology, at Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology of Morocco.
There she coordinated the national Education and Research strategy, worked as a university professor and research director at Ibn Tofail University in Morocco for more than 20 years, and from 2001 to 2007 held the position of technical officer at the agency.
She holds a PhD in Nutrition and Endocrinology from Laval University in Canada and in Food Science from the University of Dijon in France, and is a postdoctoral Fulbright Scholar (awarded by the U.S. government) at Johns Hopkins University (Source: ACN).
