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Deputy Secretary-General

Hong Yan was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of WMO on 23 June 2004, having been Assistant Secretary-General since September 2001. Prof. Yan graduated from the Nanjing Institute of Meteorology (now the Nanjing University of Information Service and Technology) in China in 1966 and began his career in 1975 as Associate Research Scientist at the Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics. He spent several years in the USA as a Visiting Scholar, first of all in the Department of Meteorology of the University of Utah (1979-1982) and then at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (1985-1987).

In 1987, he moved to the National Meteorological Centre of the China Meteorological Administration as Deputy Director-General. In 1991 he was promoted Director-General of the Institute of Strategic Development and Overall Planning. In 1992, he became Deputy Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration, a post he held concurrently with a chair of Professor at the Nanjing Institute of Meteorology.

His international experience includes being Vice-Chairman and Chairman of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee, Vice-President of the WMO Commission for Atmospheric Sciences and member of the Advisory Working Group of the WMO Commission for Basic Systems.

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