The UK National Commission for UNESCO is an independent organisation, and since October 2006, a private company  (registered in England and Wales) limited by guarantee (not for profit).  The Department for International Development is the sponsoring department for UK relationship with UNESCO and provides the core funding for the operation of the Commission.

Board of Directors

The Commission is governed by a Board of Directors comprising nine non-Executive Directors. The Board is chaired by Professor Alec Boksenberg CBE FRS FInstP. The Board provides strategic direction and oversight in all aspects of the Commission's operation.

Chair of the Board of Directors: Professor Alec Boksenberg CBE FRS FInstP

A physicist and astrophysicist, Professor Alexander Boksenberg is a Fellow of the Royal Society and associated with several other national and international scientific bodies, Chair of the UK National Commission for UNESCO and Chair of its Natural Sciences Committee, Honorary Professor of Experimental Astronomy in the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Churchill College, Visiting Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Fellow of University College London, and Executive Editor of Experimental Astronomy (Springer). In Cambridge he researches on the evolution of galaxies and the intergalactic medium.

Formerly he was Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University College London. Mainly he has been engaged in developing and establishing major ground-based and space observatories, and the use of such facilities for his work in observational cosmology. He has over 250 scientific publications in learned journals and books. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and President of the British Horological Institute and has been member or chair of more than sixty Councils, Courts, Committees and similar bodies. He has been awarded the CBE, several prizes and honorary doctorates and has an Asteroid named after him.

For UNESCO, he is a member of the Scientific Council of UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (BRESCE), a member of its Task Force for Reconstruction of Scientific Cooperation in South-East Europe, Chair of its Working Group on Restoring Human Potential, and personally established regional cooperative projects in science, linking eleven countries. He was involved in establishing the new International Basic Sciences Programme and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre’s Astronomy and World Heritage, served on the adjudicating panel for UNESCO’s Science Prizes, and is a member of the expert international committee for the Overall Review of the Natural and the Social & Human Sciences programmes.

The Commission operates four sectoral committees (Education, Sciences, Culture and Communication & Information), two cross-sectoral committees (UNESCO Chairs and Peace) and two country committees (Wales and Scotland).  Members of sectoral and country committees are all voluntary experts.

Work of the Commission is supported by a Secretariat with five full-time salaried staff members. The Secretariat acts as point of coordination in day-to-day matters, liaison and carries forward agreed programmes and activities of the Commission.

Other Non-Executive Directors

Ms Sue Davies OBE
Professor Richard Ennals
Professor Ivor Gaber
Mr Tim Mason
Professor John Morgan
Ms Joanne Orr
Professor Michael Scott
Mr Olliver Southgate

Sectoral and Country Committees and Working Groups

The Commission operates four sectoral committees (Education, Sciences, Culture and Communication & Information), two cross-sectoral committees (UNESCO Chairs and Peace) and two country committees (Wales and Scotland).

The Commission's extensive network of over 200 members from across the UK represents a broad cross-section of disciplines, knowledge and skills drawn from the fields of education, science, culture, communication and information. Members are all voluntary experts and serve on Committees and/or Working Groups in their own right.

Secretariat