The result of a sixteen year gestation period
Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
Dr M. Hilmi Güler (left) and then Director General
of UNIDO Mr. Carlos Margarinos (right) signing
the creation of the Centre on 21 October 2003. When ICHET started operation on the 19th May 2004, some sixteen years of behind-the-scenes lobbying, negotiation and diplomacy finally came to fruition. The Centre was the brainchild of Dr. Nejat Veziroğlu, Director of the Clean Energy Research Institute in Miami University and was conceived as the result of a report he had been commissioned to prepare for UNIDO. Dr Veziroğlu set to work persuading a series of Turkish Governments as to the attractions of hosting an international centre dedicated to fostering the cause of hydrogen energy. Finally, in October 2003, a treaty establishing the centre was signed by the Minister of Energy on behalf of the Turkish Government and UNIDO. Ratification of the treaty soon followed paving the way for the centre's commencement with Dr Veziroğlu as its founding director.
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