Lyse Doucet is a presenter and correspondent for both BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television.

She is often deployed to anchor special news coverage from the field and has frequently interviewed world leaders.

Most recently, she has interviewed the President of Syria, Bashar al Assad, the UN's outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan, King Abdullah of Jordan, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi.

She played a key role in BBC coverage of the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the war in Iraq in 2003, and Afghanistan in 2001.

Her work has also taken her to Pakistan for the South Asia earthquake in 2005 and to India and Indonesia to present extensive coverage of the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

She was in Thailand covering the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Burma in May 2008.

Lyse is a regular presenter on the BBC World Service programme Newshour, which won a Sony Gold award in Britain in 2008.

She also occasionally presents the BBC World Service programme The Interview.

Before joining the BBC's team of presenters in 1999, she spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent.

She spent five years in West Africa, based in Abidjan. She later lived in Kabul and Islamabad, and was a frequent visitor to Tehran.

Her last postings took her to Amman and then Jerusalem for several years.

Born in eastern Canada, in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Lyse has an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New Brunswick, a Master's Degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto, and a BA Honours Degree from Queen's University at Kingston.

She is a Council member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and the International Council on Human Rights Policy.

She is also a patron of Canadian Crossroads International and Friends of Aschiana, a street children's charity in Afghanistan.

Lyse's work has been recognised by major broadcasting awards.

In 2007 she won the Association For International Broadcasting's International Television Personality award and Women In Film And Television's News And Factual award.

In 2003 she was awarded a Silver Sony Award for radio News Broadcaster of the Year.

In 2002 she and her team were nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for their exclusive coverage of the attempted assassination of the Afghan President Hamid Karzai.