Who is Afraid of Research and Innovation? Freedom of Research and Socially Robust Knowledge

Helga Nowotny is Professor emerita of Social Studies of Science, ETH Zurich, and a founding member of the European Research Council. In 2007 she was elected ERC Vice President and in March 2010 succeeded Fotis Kafatos as President of the ERC. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, NY. and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Vienna. After a distinguished teaching and research career with positions in Vienna, Bielefeld, Cambridge, Berlin, Paris, Budapest and Zurich, her current host institution is the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF). Helga Nowotny is a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a long standing member the Academia Europaea; member of the Governing Board of the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and of other international Advisory Boards and selection committees. Among the prizes and awards she has received is the J.D. Bernal Prize for her life-long achievements in STS, and doctorates honoris causa from several European universities. Helga Nowotny has published widely in social studies of science and technology and on social time. Her latest book publications include “Naked Genes, Reinventing the human in the molecular age”, (with Giuseppe Testa), MIT Press, 2011, “Insatiable Curiosity, Innovation in a Fragile Future”, MIT Press, 2008, and “Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation (ed.)”, New York and London, 2006.