Hans Blix was born in 1928 in the Swedish university town, Uppsala, where his father served as a professor of chemistry. He followed in his father's academic footsteps and studied at the universities in Uppsala, Columbia (New York) and Cambridge where he received his Ph.D. Since 1963 he has served as a diplomat in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations. In 2000 he was named the executive director of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC). Prior to the 2003 war in Iraq he headed the UN weapons inspectors who were sent to Iraq to find out if Saddam Hussein's regime had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. Following the war he has left his position in the United Nations.