Award of a Gold medal of the Academia Europaea

Academia Europaea
The Academy of Europe

 

An award of the Academia Europaea Gold Medal,
Monday 4th September 2017, at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, to;

Professor Helga Nowotny MAE

Citation:  This award is only rarely given, and is made “… to those members and non-members of the Academia and to organisations, in recognition of the contribution made to European science through inspiration, public support, management expertise or by financial means.

The Board of trustees and the Council of the Academia Europaea are pleased to recognise the substantial and sustained contribution that Professor Nowotny has made, to the enabling of and to the development of the European Research Area and systems for direct support and encouragement of European collaborative research and researchers, of all categories.

Professor Nowotny will deliver her Gold Medal address during the opening session of the 2017 joint annual meeting of the Academia Europaea-ALLEA and the Young Academy of Europe, on 4th September, 2017.

The laudation will be given by Professor Enric Banda MAE, Barcelona


Professor Helga Nowotny

TITLE OF PRESENTATION:
The Resilience of Science

ABSTRACT OF PRESENTATION:

Science is resilient – even when seemingly threatened today by fake news, climate change denial and the celebration of a post-factual era. But where does its resilience come from and which are the epistemic and institutional mechanisms that enable it?

I will analyze three of them while showing how they have recently come under strain that test the resilience of science in novel and sometimes unexpected ways. I will conclude by returning to Abram Flexner’s manifesto ‚The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge’ written 80 years ago and argue that we may need to update it.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

Helga Nowotny is Professor emerita of Science and Technology Studies, ETH Zurich, and a founding member of the European Research Council. In 2007 she was elected ERC Vice President and from March 2010 until December 2013 President of the ERC. Currently she is Chair of the ERA Council Forum Austria and member of the Austrian Council. Among other, she is also Vice-President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and member of the Board of Trustees of Falling Walls, Berlin. She is Nanyang Technological University Singapore Visiting Professor.
She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, NY. and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Vienna. She has held teaching and research positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Vienna; King’s College, Cambridge; University of Bielefeld; Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin; Ecole des Hautes Etudes an Sciences Sociales, Paris; Science Center for Social Sciences, Berlin; Collegium Budapest; Budapest. Helga Nowotny is Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Academies in Belgium, Germany Austria and Italy and has received honorary doctorates from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, the University of Bergen and the University of Edinburgh just to mention a few. She continues to serve on many international advisory boards in Austria and throughout Europe. Helga Nowotny has published widely in Science and Technology Studies, STS, and on social time. Her latest books include “The Cunning of Uncertainty” (2015 Polity Press) and “Eigenzeit. Revisited” in “Die Zeit der Algorithmen” (Matthes & Seitz). Throughout her professional career Helga Nowotny has been engaged in science and innovation policy matters and continues to serve as advisor at national and EU level.

Further information: http://www.helga-nowotny.eu/index.php


TITLE AND FULL NAME: Professor Enric Banda

AFFILIATION: Barcelona Supercomputing Center

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

Doctoral studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. PhD in Physics, 1979, at the University of Barcelona. Post-doc at the ETH in Zurich. Research Professor of the Spanish High Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) in 1987. Director of the Earth Sciences Institute in Barcelona in 1988. In 1994, Secretary General of the National R&D Plan. In 1995 Secretary of State for Universities and Research. Secretary General of the European Science Foundation 1998-2003. Director of the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation and of the Catalan Institution for Advanced Studies (ICREA) between 2004 and 2007. Director of Innovation and Environment at La Seda de Barcelona. Director of Science and Environment at “la Caixa” Foundation (2009-2015). Has been Vice-president of the European Geophysical Society, editor-in-chief of Tectonophysics and European editor of Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union). Author of more than 160 reviewed scientific papers. Member of the Academia Europaea. Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Former President of Euroscience (2006-2012). Since 2012 Member of the “Reial Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts de Barcelona”. Presently Senior Advisor at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.