Dr. Pierre Boutros Mansourian is a medical graduate from the Universities of Cairo and Lausanne. He pursued his postgraduate training in the University of London (biomedical engineering, neurophysiology and epidemiology), before joining WHO in 1969, with the Division of Research in Epidemiology and Communication Science. A few years later, he was appointed to the Office of Science and Technology, an advisory unit to the Director General. He continued with that Office (subsequently renamed research policy coordination), becoming its Director in 1994, until retirement (1998). He published original work in a range of fields including neurophysiology, medical informatics, systems analysis (transfer function of the vestibulo-ocular control system) and epidemiology (digital filters and pattern recognition techniques in epidemiological variables). 

He served as Secretary of WHO's Advisory Committee on Health Research and participated closely with that body in the formulation of research strategies and policy principles for the Organization, during the 80s and 90s. In his coordinative functions, he has been instrumental in promoting new methodologies such as remote sensing, systems modelling, and artificial intelligence in various WHO programmes. Retiring after 30 years of service with WHO, he was asked by a UNESCO-based project to preside over the development of a medical and public health encyclopedia (EOLSS). Amongst other noteworthy contributions during that period, were  books on  ´Understanding the Global Dimensions of Health ´ and on the History of Research in WHO .