On November 27, 2009 Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General, announced her decision, which was made under unanimous advice of the International Jury, to award a UNESCO prize named after His Majesty Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah for applying information and communication technologies in education to the Rector of the Moscow Institute of Open Education Alexey Semyonov and to the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies of Jordan.   

Professor Alexey Semyonov – professional mathematician, corresponding member of RAS, winner of Award named after A. Kolmogorov of RAS in 2006, who has made fundamental contribution to analysis of logical languages and theories, complexity theory, and relational algebra. Under his supervision a number of computer environments and tools for schoolchildren relevant for present goals of school education in all fields were developed, he supervised a number of actions aimed at standardization of education in the sphere of mathematics and informatics; he is a member of executive committee of the International Union on Mathematical Education.

The Subject of the Award in 2009 was «Education, Teaching and E-Pedagogic: Professional Development of Teachers for Societies based on Knowledge”. During quarter of a century Alexey Semyonov has being a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of leaders of the process of informatization in Russian education. He developed a model of sustainable informatization of educational systems acknowledged by the Moscow Department of Education and educational systems of other regions, applied in the new standard of secondary education.

Alexey Semyonov – author and participant of writing teams for many UNESCO books destined for teachers, school principals and leaders of educational systems in different countries and translated to many languages, he is one of founders of UNESCO Institute on Information Technologies in Education in Moscow.   

Moscow Institute of Open Education, which Alexey Semyonov has been heading for the last 16 years, carries out activities aimed at further training of Moscow teachers (about 30 thousand teacher annually) and teachers from other regions, brings into effect functions of Moscow as region-consultant on complex projects of educational modernization, he developed Moscow Government Strategy in the sphere of childhood, provides for methodical support of region’s pedagogues.  Under supervision of Alexey Semyonov the model of professional ICT-competence of teachers of informatization school is being implemented.