At a time when the International Atomic Energy Agency, the world's leading intergovernmental forum on scientific and technical cooperation on nuclear technology, has been calling for the return for UN inspectors to Iraq, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA's Director General will deliver the commencement address at The Fletcher School at Tufts University on Sunday, May 18, 2003, beginning at [approximately] 11:45 a.m.

Dr. Baradei is expected to touch on international co-operation, multilateral institutions, disarmament, arms control and verification issues. In 1997, Dr. ElBaradei was appointed to the office effective Dec. 1997, and reappointed to a second term in September 2001.

Earlier, Dr. ElBaradei was a senior member of the IAEA Secretariat, holding a number of high-level policy positions, including that of the Agency's Legal Adviser and, beginning in 1993, Assistant Director General for External Relations.

Born in 1942 in Cairo, Egypt, Dr. ElBaradei gained a Bachelor's degree in Law in 1962 at the University of Cairo, and a Doctorate in International Law at the New York University School of Law in 1974.

He began his career in the Egyptian diplomatic service in 1964, serving on two occasions in the Permanent Missions of Egypt to the United Nations in New York and Geneva, where he was in charge of political, legal and arms control issues.

From 1974 to 1978 he was a special assistant to the Foreign Minister of Egypt. In 1980 he left the diplomatic service and became a senior fellow in charge of the international law program at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. From 1981 to 1987 he was also an Adjunct Professor of International Law at the NewYork University School of Law.

During his distinguished career as diplomat, international civil servant and scholar, Dr. ElBaradei has become an expert on the processes of international organizations, particularly in the fields of international peace and security and international law making.

He has also lectured widely on international law, international organizations, arms control and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and is the author of various articles and books on these subjects.

Dr. ElBaradei is married to Aida Elkachef, a teacher at the Vienna International School. They have a daughter, Laila, a lawyer, and a son, Mostafa, a sound engineer, both of whom live and work in London, England.