21 Facts About Reza Ardakanian

Reza Ardakanian is an Iranian professor, politician and former Minister of Energy of Iran, a position he had held from 29 October 2017 to 25 August 2021.

Reza Ardakanian was previously deputy energy minister in the 1980s and 1990s and has been involved with UN-Water.

Reza Ardakanian is the Founding Director of the United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources since 2012.

Reza Ardakanian is the co-ordinator of the UN-Water Task Force on planning and organization of the new Water Decade.

Reza Ardakanian served as Director of the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development from 2007 to 2015 and as ad interim Vice-Rector of the United Nations University in Europe from 2009 to 2011.

Reza Ardakanian was co-opted Professor at the Technische Universitat Dresden in Dresden, Germany and is a faculty member of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran.

Reza Ardakanian holds a PhD in Water Resources Management from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

At the national level, Reza Ardakanian has served as the Deputy Minister for Urban Development in the Ministry of Interior, Deputy Minister for Planning, the First Deputy Minister, and Deputy Minister for Water Affairs in the Ministry of Energy of Iran.

Reza Ardakanian is a water scientist with a PhD in Water Resources Management from McMaster University, Canada.

Reza Ardakanian has published his academic contributions in a number of books, journal articles and working papers.

Reza Ardakanian is co-opted professor at the Technische Universitat Dresden and a faculty member of the Sharif University of Technology since 1998 and supervised 15 PhD and MSc students.

Reza Ardakanian served as Director-in-charge of the Iran Water Resources Research Editorial Board, a member of the Board of Trustees of the university from 1999 to 2006.

Reza Ardakanian has authored, co-authored, and edited over 100 publications, including books, journal papers, research reports, lecture notes, and articles for the media.

Reza Ardakanian has made remarkable contributions to the United Nations system.

Reza Ardakanian established a joint PhD programme in Integrated Management of Water, Soil and Waste with the Technische Universitat Dresden.

Reza Ardakanian successfully led the organization of the Dresden Nexus Conference in 2015 and 2017 linking experts in the area of water, soil and waste from the UN system organizations, international organizations, UN Member States, universities and research institutions as well as individuals to collectively make contributions to the optimization of the innovative usage of the environmental resources.

Reza Ardakanian was appointed as Co-coordinator of the UN-Water Task Force on planning and organization of the new Water Decade and is the deputy UNU Representative to the UN-Water.

Reza Ardakanian led the development and launch of the UN-Water Activity Information System.

Reza Ardakanian was on the Managing Board of the International Hydropower Association in London and the Czechglobe Global Change Research Institute.

Reza Ardakanian was Founding Director of RCUWM, a UNESCO regional centre on urban water management based in Tehran and co-founder of the Center for Qanats and Historic Hydraulic Structures under auspices of UNESCO in Yazd, Iran.

Reza Ardakanian was nominated as Energy minister by President Hassan Rouhani on 15 October 2017.