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Shihab-Eldin, Adnan Austria         Dr Shihab-Eldin, a physicist and engineer by training with working experience in a number of diverse fields, currently serves as senior advisor and consultant to a number of public and private institutions, organizations and companies. In 2005 he served as the Acting Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) where he also served as Director of Research, from August 2001 through March 2006. From March 1999 to August 2001 he served as Director of the Division for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Department of Technical Co-operation, at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. Prior to joining the IAEA, from December 1991 to February 1999, he served as Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Technology (Cairo) and as the UNESCO Representative in Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen. Dr Adnan Shihab-Eldin, a Kuwaiti citizen, was born in 1943. He received a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1965, a M.Sc. degree in 1967, and Doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Nuclear Engineering in 1970, all from the University of California at Berkeley, USA. Prior to his career with international organizations, Dr Shihab-Eldin taught, lectured on, and directed research in, the physical and engineering sciences, as well as the applied fields of energy economics, technology and the environment, at a number of universities and research centers in Kuwait, the United States and Europe. He joined Kuwait University Faculty in 1970 and served as Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at the University from 1976 to 1980 and was the Director General of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research from 1976 to 1986. He also worked from 1971 through 1975 as a Research Physicist and later, from 1987 to 1991, as a Visiting Research Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, and was also frequently a visiting scholar at the European Nuclear Research Center in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the Energy and Environment Policy Center at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Dr Shihab-Eldin is a member of many national, regional, and international professional societies; he also serves, and has served, as a member of the Board of Directors of more than 30 companies, foundations, and advisory committees. He has published more than 150 scientific papers, articles and reports, and co-authored five books, as well as having delivered numerous lectures and invited talks at international and regional meetings, in the areas of Energy Economics; Oil Markets; Policies, Technologies and Environmental Aspects of Energy Systems; Nuclear Pysics and Engineering; Policy, Management and Development of Science & Technology in Developing Countries; Higher Education Systems, and other related fields. Abstract Comments on a Number of Successful Institutions in Developing Countries In seeking common denominators or factors for what makes World-Class Research Institutes, this presentation will describe a number of institutes, academic and non-academic research centers in what is considered to be the Developing World. These institutions are recognized in their respective countries, and in many cases in the Western World, as outstanding research institutions. Attempts are made to highlight what makes each of these institutions what it is, and to draw some conclusions on what may be selected in seeking to build new centers in Arab countries.