Federico Mayor Zaragoza

Federico Mayor Zaragoza (born 27 January 1934 in Barcelona) is a scientist, scholar, politician, diplomat, and poet from Spain.

He obtained a Ph.D. in pharmacy from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1958.

In 1963 he became professor of biochemistry at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Granada, and in 1968 was elected rector of that university, a post he held until 1972.

The following year he was appointed professor in biochemistry at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

In 1974 he co-founded the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Centre at the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Spanish High Council for Scientific Research.

The main focus of Professor Mayor's scientific research has been on molecular brain disease, and he was responsible for drawing up the Spanish National Plan for Mental Health Prevention.

He is a member of the Club of Rome, the Club of Budapest, a founder member of the Issyk-Kul Forum.

Federico Mayor Zaragoza was undersecretary of Education and Science in the Spanish Government (1974–1975) during the Francoist dictatorship, UCD deputy for Granada region in the Spanish Parliament (1977–1978), Adviser to the President of the Government (1977–1978), Minister of Education and Science (1981–1982) and CDS deputy in the European Parliament (1987).

In 1978 Federico Mayor Zaragoza became deputy director-general of UNESCO.

He served as the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1987 to 1999.

After his tenure as Director-General, he continued to participate in various peace-related organizations such as the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and the International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, as a member of their honorary boards.

Additionally, he serves as the honorary chairman of the Académie de la Paix.

Federico Mayor Zaragoza was born in Barcelona, Spain.

In 1987 he was elected director-general of UNESCO and re-elected for a second mandate in 1993.

During his 12 years as head of UNESCO (1987–1999) Mayor Zaragoza gave new life to the organization's mission to "build a bastion of peace in the minds of all people", putting the institution at the service of peace, tolerance, human rights and peaceful coexistence, working within the scope of its powers and remaining faithful to its original goals.

Under his guidance, UNESCO created the Culture of Peace Programme, whose objectives revolve around four main themes: education for peace; human rights and democracy; the fight against isolation and poverty; the defense of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue; and conflict prevention and the consolidation of peace.

On 10 November 1998, the UN General Assembly declared the years 2001–2010, International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World and, on 13 September 1999, it adopted the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, which embodies Mayor's greatest aspirations from both a conceptual and practical standpoint.

After deciding not to run for a third term, in 1999 he returned to Spain to create the Foundation for a Culture of Peace, of which he is chairman.

In 2000, Federico Mayor Zaragoza founded the Foundation for a Culture of Peace, serving as its president.

In 2002, Mayor Zaragoza was appointed to chair the European Research Council Expert Group (ERCEG) set up in December 2002, during the Danish EU presidency, on the initiative of Helge Sander, the Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.

Its creation was a follow-up to the conclusions on the status of the European Research Area (ERA) reached by the Council of Ministers meeting on competitiveness, held in Brussels on 26 November 2002, and the recommendations on the basic principles of a possible European Research Council (ERC) agreed in October 2002 at a conference in Copenhagen organized by the Danish Research Councils.

The European Union has identified the need to strengthen the competitiveness of Europe and to become a knowledge-based economy.

In 2002, Federico Mayor Zaragoza co-founded with Boutros Boutros Ghali, John Brademas, Edward J. Nell, Karim Errouaki and Alain Chanlat the Centre Humanism, Management & Globalization (HMG) at HEC-Montreal.

The aim of HGM was to support projects and develop programs based on policies that would humanize the process of globalization across its many dimensions- economic, ecological, social, political, cultural and organizational.

In 2005 he received the Prize Creu de Sant Jordi from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

He is an honorary member of several scientific societies and a member of several academies, among them, the World Academy of Art and Science.

He has also received several honorary doctorates (honoris causa).

He is honorary president of the University of Granada.

In 2005, Federico Mayor Zaragoza was appointed co-president for the UN High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC), by Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General.

The Alliance of Civilizations is an initiative proposed by the President of the Government of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, at the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 2005.

It was co-sponsored by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The initiative seeks to galvanize international action against extremism through the forging of international, intercultural and inter religious dialogue and cooperation.

The Alliance places a particular emphasis on defusing tensions between the Western and Islamic worlds.

To fulfill the objective of the initiative, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan assembled a High-Level Group (HLG) consisting of 20 eminent persons drawn from policy making, academia, civil society, religious leadership, and the media.

A full range of religions and civilizations were represented.

Among the members were former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, who proposed the Dialogue Among Civilizations initiative, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African Nobel laureate, Prof. Pan Guang, who obtained the Saint Petersburg-300 Medal for Contribution to China-Russia Relations, and Arthur Schneier, who is the founder and president of the "Appeal of Conscience Foundation" and who gained the "Presidential Citizens Medal".

The HLG met 5 times between November 2005 and November 2006, and produced a report prioritizing relations between the Western and Muslim societies.

The first meeting of the HLG of the AoC took place in Spain in November 2005.

The second meeting was in Doha, Qatar from 25 to 27 February 2006 with the agenda of aiming to find ways to calm the cartoon crisis between West and Islamic world.

The third meeting took place in Dakar, Senegal from 28 to 30 May 2006.