Helga Nowotny

Helga Nowotny (born 1937[1]) is Professor emeritus of Social

Helga Nowotny
Studies of Science, ETH Zurich. She has held numerous
leadership roles on Academic boards and public policy
councils, and she has authored many publications in the social
studies of science and technology.[2]

Contents
Early life
Research and publications
Research policy
Professional positions
Awards and prizes Nowotny at the World Economic Forum
Selected bibliography Annual Meeting in 2013
Books Born 1937 (age 84–85)
Journal articles Vienna, Austria
References Nationality Austrian
External links Occupation Professor at ETH Zurich
Title Professor emeritus
Board European Research
Early life member of Advisory Board of the
European Commission
Nowotny grew up in Vienna, Austria during World War II. In
interviews, she has recalled first wanting to become a scientist (Chair, 2001–2006)
at the age of 8, when she was sent to Vorarlberg, the
Governing Board of
westernmost province of Austria, and quickly learned the local
the University of
dialect.[3]
Göttingen (Vice-Chair)
Nowotny received her doctorate of jurisprudence at the ERC Scientific
University of Vienna in 1959. After completing her degree, she Council (President,
faced opposition to her application for an assistant 2010-2013)
professorship in the Department of Criminology there on the Scientific Advisory
basis of her being a woman. She agreed with the hiring Board of the
professor that if a more capable man applied for the position, he University of Vienna
could have the job. In the end, she was hired to the position.[4] (Chair, current)
It was there that she became interested in the sociology of
Governing Board of the
science. In 1965, she moved to New York City with her
Science Center in Berlin
husband, where she enrolled in a sociology doctoral program.
There, she met Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton, who (current)
mentored her throughout her education.[5] Academic background
Education University of Vienna
In 1969, Nowotny earned her Ph.D. in sociology at Columbia Alma mater Columbia University
University, New York, where she completed her thesis on Academic work
macrosociology and its methodology. She returned to Vienna to
work as an associate professor at the Institute for Advanced Discipline Law, Sociology
Studies.[5] Sub- Social studies of science,
discipline science and society and
Research and publications social time
Institutions Vienna Science and
Nowotny's work in the 1970s and 1980s includes topics such Technology Fund
as scientific controversies and technological risks, social time, King’s College
coping with uncertainty, self-organization in science and University of Bielefeld
gender relations in science, resulting in major monographs, co- Wissenschaftszentrum
edited and edited books and numerous articles. In 1989, she Berlin
published the book Eigenzeit (English title: Time: The Modern
School for Advanced
and Postmodern Experience), which has since been translated
Studies in the Social
into several languages.[6]
Sciences
Between 1992 and 1995 Helga Nowotny has been President of
the International Society for the Study of Time. From the 1990s onwards she focused her research activities
on new topics in social studies of science and technology. She conducted an empirical study on the
discovery of high-superconductivity research and its impact on research policy (with Ulrike Felt) and
increasingly on the changing relationship between science and society.

In 1994 Nowotny helped coin the term “Mode 2” for a new mode of applied research focused on solving
specific problems. By contrast, “Mode 1” is basic research done within disciplines, initiated by the interest
of the investigator, not from external demand.[7]

Research policy
Next to her teaching and research activities, carried out at several
universities and research institutions in Europe, Nowotny had
always been intensely engaged in research policy. From 1985-1992
she was Chair of the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences of
the European Science Foundation. She has been chair and member
of the scientific advisory boards of numerous research institutions
and policy-related committees throughout Europe. From 2001 until
early 2006 she was Chair of EURAB, the European Research
Advisory Board of the European Commission.

Nowotny is one of the founding members of the European

Research Council, which has been established to fund frontier
research at EU level based on the sole criteria of scientific
excellence and pan-European competition.[6] There she served as
Nowotny at a public speaking event the Vice President and in February 2010, Nowotny was
in December 2015. unanimously elected to the position of President of the European
Research Council after the resignation of the founding president,
Fotis Kafatos.[8][9] As president of the ERC, she promoted
increases in research funding across Europe, and advised new EU member states to increase funding
support for their own research programs to prevent a "brain drain".[10] She held the position until
December 2013.
In 2014, Nowotny was appointed chair of the ERA Council Forum Austria, which advises the Austrian
Ministry of Science and Research at the interface of European and national research policy.[11]

Currently, Nowotny is Chair of the International Advisory Board of the University of Vienna. In 2020, she
was appointed by European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya
Gabriel to chair an independent search committee for the next president of the ERC.[12]

Professional positions
In 1981-1982 and 2003-2004 Nowotny was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and from 1992-
1999 Permanent Fellow at Collegium Budapest/Institute of Advanced Study. Before moving to ETH
Zurich, she was Professor and Head of the newly founded Institute for Theory and Social Studies of
Science of the University of Vienna.

From 1998 on, Nowotny was Director of the Collegium Helveticum at ETH Zurich. She was the founding
director of the post-graduate fellowship programme based at ETH “Society in science: the Branco Weiss
Fellowship” until 2004, when she returned to her native Vienna. From 2008 to 2014, Nowotny was a
member of the Holberg Committee, which awards the Holberg prize to scholars who have made
outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law or theology.[6]

Nowotny has held teaching and research positions at the Institute of Advanced Study in Vienna, King's
College, Cambridge, UK, the University of Bielefeld, the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin and the École des
Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.[2] Nowotny is vice president of the council for the Lindau
Nobel Laureate Meetings.[13]

Awards and prizes

Nowotny is a Member of Academia Europaea and Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences since 2006. Among other honours she has been awarded the J.D. Bernal Prize for her lifelong
achievements in social studies of science. In October 2015, she received an honorary doctorate at the
University of Bergen.[6][14] She has also received an honorary doctorate from the Weizmann Institute of
Science[11] and the University of Twente.[15]

In September 2017, she was awarded the President's Medal of the British Academy "for her contribution to
the founding and shaping of the European Research Council, and positively influencing the shape of
research funding and research policy in the UK and Europe".[16]

Selected bibliography

Books
Nowotny, Helga; Mendelsohn, Everett (1984). Nineteen eighty-four: science between utopia
and dystopia. Dordrecht Boston Hingham, Massachusetts: D. Reidel Publishg Co.
ISBN 9789027717214.
Nowotny, Helga; et al. (1994). The new production of knowledge: the dynamics of science
and research in contemporary societies. London Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE
Publications. ISBN 9780803977945.
Nowotny; Taschwer, Klaus (1996). The sociology of the sciences. Cheltenham, UK
Brookfield, Vermont, US: E. Elgar. ISBN 9781852789114. Pdf of book contents. (http://www.
 gbv.de/dms/goettingen/239157532.pdf)
Nowotny, Helga; Scott, Peter; Gibbons, Michael (2001). Re-thinking science: knowledge and
the public in an age of uncertainty. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ISBN 9780745626086.
Nowotny, Helga (2005). The public nature of science under assault politics, markets,
science and the law. Berlin New York: Springer. ISBN 9783540257912.
Nowotny, Helga (2006). Cultures of technology and the quest for innovation. New York, New
York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781845451172. Conference details: Cultures of technology
and the quest for innovation, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI) in Essen, Germany,
April 2003.
Nowotny, Helga (2008). Insatiable curiosity: innovation in a fragile future. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9781435654976.
Nowotny, Helga; Testa, Giuseppe (2010). Naked genes: reinventing the human in the
molecular age. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262014939.

Journal articles
Nowotny, Helga (September 1992). "Time and social theory: towards a social theory of time".
Time & Society. 1 (3): 421–454. doi:10.1177/0961463X92001003006 (https://doi.org/10.117
7%2F0961463X92001003006). S2CID 145062035 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusI
D:145062035).
Nowotny, Helga (October 1993). "Socially distributed knowledge: five spaces for science to
meet the public". Public Understanding of Science. 2 (4): 307–319. doi:10.1088/0963-
6625/2/4/002 (https://doi.org/10.1088%2F0963-6625%2F2%2F4%2F002).
S2CID 143351946 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143351946).
Nowotny, Helga (May 1999). "The place of people in our knowledge". European Review. 7
(2): 247–262. doi:10.1017/S1062798700004026 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS10627987000
04026).
Nowotny, Helga (February 2000). "Transgressive competence: the narrative of expertise".
European Journal of Social Theory. 3 (1): 5–21. doi:10.1177/136843100003001001 (https://
doi.org/10.1177%2F136843100003001001). S2CID 17147844 (https://api.semanticscholar.
org/CorpusID:17147844).
Nowotny, Helga (June 2003). "Democratising expertise and socially robust knowledge".
Science and Public Policy. 30 (3): 151–156. doi:10.3152/147154303781780461 (https://doi.
org/10.3152%2F147154303781780461). hdl:20.500.11850/423040 (https://hdl.handle.net/2
0.500.11850%2F423040).
Nowotny, Helga (October 2005). "The increase of complexity and its reduction: emergent
interfaces between the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences". Theory, Culture &
Society. 22 (5): 15–31. doi:10.1177/0263276405057189 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F026327
6405057189). S2CID 144901646 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:144901646).

References
1. Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding
WorldCat Identities linked authority file (LAF) (http://errol.oclc.org/laf/n83-62721.html).
2. "NOWOTNY Helga" (https://erc.europa.eu/organisation/helga-nowotny). ERC: European
Research Council. European Research Council. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
3. Burrows, Erika; Vitaliev, Vitali (13 Jun 2011). "Interview: Helga Nowotny, ERC President" (ht
tps://web.archive.org/web/20151222075611/http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/06/qanda
-Helga-novotny.cfm). The Engineering and Technology Magazine. The Institution of
Engineering and Technology. Archived from the original (http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/20
11/06/qanda-Helga-novotny.cfm) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
 4. "Helga Nowotny, President of the ERC: "Europe must regain its confidence through
science" " (http://www.kuleuven.be/english/news/2012/LIF/meet-the-honourees/interviews/h
elga-nowotny-president-of-the-european-research-council-europe-must-regain-its-confidenc
e-through-science). KU Leuven. KU Leuven. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
5. Nowotny, Helga; Leroy, Pieter (2009). "Helga Nowotny: an itinerary between sociology of
knowledge and public debate" (https://doi.org/10.1051%2Fnss%2F2009010). Natures
Sciences Sociétés. 17 (1): 57–64. doi:10.1051/nss/2009010 (https://doi.org/10.1051%2Fns
s%2F2009010). ISSN 1240-1307 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1240-1307).
6. "Helga Nowotny awarded honorary doctorate" (http://www.uib.no/en/svf/92065/helga-nowotn
y-awarded-honorary-doctorate). University of Bergen Faculty of Social Sciences. University
of Bergen. 3 Oct 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
7. "Helga Nowotny, new president of European Research Council" (http://www.en.globaltalent
news.com/current_news/reports/3123/Helga-Nowotny-new-president-of-European-Researc
h-Council.html). www.en.globaltalentnews.com. GT Media. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
8. Vogel, Gretchen (19 Feb 2010). "European Research Council Elects New President: Helga
Nowotny" (https://www.science.org/content/article/european-research-council-elects-new-pr
esident-helga-nowotny). ScienceMag News. American Association for the Advancement of
Science. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
9. "Prof. Helga Nowotny appointed as new President of the European Research Council" (htt
p://epws.org/prof-helga-nowotny-appointed-as-new-president-of-the-european-research-cou
ncil/). European Platform of Women Scientists. European Platform of Women Scientists
EPWS. 22 Feb 2010. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
10. Koekoek, Peter. "ERC stands firm on excellence: to get more grants, newer EU members
need to try harder" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151222124239/http://www.sciencebusine
ss.net/news/75660/ERC-stands-firm-on-excellence-to-get-more-grants-newer-EU-members-
need-to-try-harder). www.sciencebusiness.net. Business Publishing Ltd. Archived from the
original (http://www.sciencebusiness.net/news/75660/ERC-stands-firm-on-excellence-to-get
-more-grants-newer-EU-members-need-to-try-harder) on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
11. "Helga Nowotny - Princeton-Fung Global Forum" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151222160
243/http://www.princeton.edu/fungforum/2014/speakers/helga-nowotny/). Princeton
University. The Trustees of Princeton University. Archived from the original (http://www.princ
eton.edu/fungforum/2014/speakers/helga-nowotny/) on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
12. Commission appoints independent Search Committee and invites nominations and
applications to fill the post of the next President of the European Research Council (https://e
c.europa.eu/info/news/commission-appoints-independent-search-committee-and-invites-no
minations-and-applications-fill-post-next-president-european-research-council-2020-oct-09_
en) European Commission, press release of October 9, 2020.
13. "About" (https://www.lindau-nobel.org/about/). The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.
Retrieved 2018-09-17.
14. "Helga Nowotny appointed as honorary doctor at UiB | Holbergprisen" (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20151222093304/http://holbergprisen.no/en/news/holberg-prize/helga-nowotny-utne
vnt-til-resdoktor-ved-uib). Holberg Prize. Holbergprisen - Universitetet i Bergen. 7 Jun 2015.
Archived from the original (http://holbergprisen.no/en/news/holberg-prize/helga-nowotny-utn
evnt-til-resdoktor-ved-uib) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
15. "Professor Helga Nowotny honorary doctor of the University of Twente" (https://www.utwent
e.nl/bms/steps/news/archive/honorary_doctorate_helga_nowotny/). www.utwente.nl.
Retrieved 2015-12-14.
16. "From Wikipedia to Roman coins: British Academy recognises excellence in the humanities
and social sciences" (https://www.britac.ac.uk/news/wikipedia-roman-coins-british-academy-
recognises-excellence-humanities-and-social-sciences). The British Academy. Retrieved
5 October 2017.

External links
Personal homepage (http://www.helga-nowotny.eu)
ERC homepage (http://erc.europa.eu)
Works by or about Helga Nowotny (https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n83-62721) in libraries
(WorldCat catalog)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helga_Nowotny&oldid=1095727910"

This page was last edited on 30 June 2022, at 01:05 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0;

additional terms may apply. By
using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.