Speakers - Images of Science

Don Eigler

In 1989, physicist Don Eigler for the first time in human history demonstrated the ability to build structures at the atomic level. Using nothing but xenon atoms, Eigler spelled out the name of his employer, IBM. Ever since, Eigler is regarded by many as the Godfather of Nanoscience.

Eigler received his academic training at the University of California, San Diego. After his doctorate in 1984, he became a Postdoctoral Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. After two years he changed over to the IBM Almaden Research Center, where until today he leads a group of scientists in a series of experiments aimed at extending basic knowledge about the physics of atomic-scale structures, and exploring atomic-scale data storage technologies. In 1993, Eigler was named an IBM Fellow, the highest technical honour in the IBM corporation.

Don Eigler is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990 he received in Popular Science Magazine's competition Best of What's New, the Grand Award for Science and Technology. The Göttingen Academy of Sciences awarded him in 1995 the Dannie Heineman Prize for distinguished scientific achievements in natural science, and in 1999, Eigler won the first Nanoscience Prize. Since 2001, he is a honourary doctor at Delft University of Technology. When not working in his laboratory or attending conferences, Eigler trains guide dogs for the blind.

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Ene Ergma

In the persona of Ene Ergma (1944) science and society meet. Since March 2003, Ergma is - on behalf of the Res Publica party - President of the Riigikogu, the Estonian national Parliament. But besides being a full time politician, Ergma is professor of Astrophysics at the University of Tartu and Vice-President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the Estonia Steering Committee on Women and Science, the European Astronomical Society, and of the Republic of Estonia Science Award Committee, a prize she was awarded herself in 2002 for her contributions to the exact sciences. Ergma also participates in the Euroscience Working Group on Ethics and Science, and has written over 100 both scientific and popularising publications.

Ergma studied Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Tartu and Moscow State University. She graduated cum laude in 1972. In the 1980's, she worked at the Moscow Institute for Space Research, where she wrote a dissertation on thermonuclear burning. Ergma further was a guest professor at the University of Amsterdam, guest researcher at Helsinki University, and Gauss professor at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. Her specialisations are High Energy Astrophysics, Stellar Evolution and Black Holes.

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Rainer Gerold

Rainer Gerold has been working for the European Commission’s Directorate General Science, Research and Development since 1982. He is in charge of the directorate Science and Society.

Gerold studied law and economics at the University of Bonn and obtained his PhD in international law. He has been working at the Oberlandesgericht
(regional court of appeal) in Cologne from 1965 to 1969. In 1970, he joined the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology in Bonn, where he became assistant to the State Secretary (1972-1974). In 1974, Gerold moved to CERN in Geneva, to take up a position as assistant to the Director General, Sir John Adams, while at the same time fulfilling the role of secretary of the CERN directorate. In 1978, he became administrative director of the GSF (National Research Centre for Environment and Health) in Munich and remained there until 1982, when he moved to the European Commission.

Maria van der Hoeven

Maria van der Hoeven was born in Meerssen on 13 September 1949. After completing her secondary education she trained as a primary teacher in Maastricht. She subsequently obtained a secondary teaching certificate in English, after which she attended courses in higher management for non-profit organisations at the Institute of Social Sciences, and business management at the Open University in Heerlen.

In 1969, she started teaching at schools of home economics and, from 1971, at a junior secondary commercial school, where she subsequently became a school counsellor. Until 1987 she was head of the Adult Commercial Vocational Training Centre in Maastricht, after which she served as the head of the Limburg Technology Centre until 1991.

From 1991 to 2002 Van der Hoeven was Member of the House of Representatives of the States General (the Dutch Parliament) for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA).

She has held a variety of social and cultural posts including membership of the governing board of the Domstad College of Higher Professional Education in Utrecht and of the Southern Dutch Opera Association, and membership of theatre company 't Vervolg.

Van der Hoeven was Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the first Balkenende government from 22 July 2002. She was appointed to the same post in the second Balkenende government on 27 May 2003.

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Federico Mayor Zaragoza

Federico Mayor Zaragoza was born in Barcelona in 1934. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1958), and in 1963, he became a Professor of Biochemistry at the Facultad de Farmacia of the Universidad de Granada. In 1968, he became Rector of that institution, a job he held until 1972, when he was named Professor in his speciality at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Mayor not only made a career in science, but also served in numerous political functions. He has been Under-secretary of Education and Science for the Spanish Government (1974-75), Member of the Spanish Parliament (1977-78), Adviser to the Prime Minister (1977-78), Minister of Education and Science (1981-82) and Member of the European Parliament (1987).

In 1978, Mayor became Assistant Director-General of the UNESCO and was elected Director-General in 1987. He stayed with UNESCO until 1999, when he decided to return to Spain and to create the Fundación Cultura de Paz, of which he is Chairman. With this organisation Mayor continues the work he started as Director-General of UNESCO: to promote, in every area of human life, the transition from a culture of violence and imposition to one of peace and tolerance.

In addition to his numerous scientific publications, Professor Federico Mayor has published several books of essays and four books of poetry.

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Dietmar Mieth

Prof. Dr. Dietmar Mieth (1940) studied theology, German language and literature, and philosophy at Freiburg, Trier, Munich and Würzburg and acquired his PhD in theology in 1968. Having qualified as a university lecturer in 1974, he has taught the subject of Theological Ethics, initially at Fribourg (Switzerland), and since 1981 at the Catholic Theological Faculty at the University of Tübingen, placing particular emphasis on social sciences. There, amongst other things, he helped to construct the inter-faculty centre, "Ethics in the sciences".

He is particularly interested in fundamental ethics as well as ethics in information and biotechnology. In this context he was, amongst other things, member of the European Commission’s advisory group on Ethics in the sciences and in the new technologies. He is a member of the ethical advisory council at the Federal Ministry of Health and a member of the Council of Europe’s working group of the "Bioethics" steering committee on the protocol for the protection of embryos. He has published numerous book and periodicals, including the book "The dictatorship of the gene. Biotechnology between feasibility and human dignity (2001)." (Die Diktatur der Gene. Biotechnik zwischen Machbarkeit und Menschenwürde).

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Arie Rip

Arie Rip was educated as a chemist and philosopher. After a period of research in physical chemistry at Leiden University, he set up a programme of research and teaching in chemistry and society at that University, and became one of the key figures in Science, Technology and Society teaching and research, nationally and internationally. He was Professor of Science Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam (1984-1987) and is now Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology at Twente University.

Rip has been active in international scholarly societies, including being Secretary of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (1981-1986) and President of the US-based Society for Social Studies of Science (1988-1989). He is a member of science policy committees of various kinds and has advised on science policy in the United Kingdom, France, Australia and South-Africa and served as the Chairman of the Panel on Economic and Social Sciences in the HCM and TMR Programmes of the European Union.

In his research Rip focuses on science and technology dynamics and science and technology policy analysis. In his current work, two clusters of themes can be distinguished: ongoing changes in modes of knowledge production, in national research systems, and in policy instruments in context; and processes of technology development and their sometimes controversial embedment in society, and ways to influence or at least modulate them "for the better".

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Abram de Swaan

Abram de Swaan (1942) is Distinguished University Professor of Social Science at the University of Amsterdam. From 1973 until 2001, De Swaan held the chair of Sociology. He was co-founder and dean of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research and is presently its Chairman.

De Swaan studied Political Science at the University of Amsterdam where he graduated cum laude in 1966. He attended graduate school at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1973 defended his dissertation at the University of Amsterdam.

Throughout his career, De Swaan held numerous academic positions and was awarded various scientific prizes. He was Grotius professor at the New School for Social Research, European Union professor at Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, visiting professor at Columbia University and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and was Einaudi professor at Cornell University. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Academia Europea de Yuste, Spain.

De Swaan has published articles in scientific journals, cultural reviews and newspapers in the Netherlands and the United States. His most recent works are: Human Societies: An Introduction, and Words of the World: The Global Language System.

De Swaan's present research interests are in transnational society, as it concerns social policy, social identifications, and the rivalry and accommodation between language groups.