Prof. Dr. Helga Nowotny, Ph.D.
Short CV
Professor em. Dr. Helga Nowotny, Ph.D.
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 member of the Austrian Council for Sciences, Technology, and Innovation, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, member of the Board of Trustees of the Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin and Member of the Council of Adminstration at the IEA de Paris.
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; Kings 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. Before joining ETH Zurich, Professor Nowotny was Professor for Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna. Among other, Helga Nowotny is Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and 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. 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. From 2001 till 2005 she was Chair of the European Research Advisory Board, EURAB, advising the European Commission.
- Ph.D. Honoris Causa, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
- Doctor Honoris Causa, Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Lund
- Ehrensenatorin, Donau Universitaet Krems
- Doctor Honoris Causa, Nanyang Technological University
- Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Lancaster
- Doctor Honoris Causa, Leuphana Universitaet Lueneburg
- Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Leuven
- Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Twente
- Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Bergen
- Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Edinburgh
- Dorothea-Schoelzer-Medaille, University of Goettingen
- Distinguished Affiliated Professor, Technische Universitaet Muenchen
- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Foreign Member, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- Foreign Member, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
- Foreign Member, Accademia delle Scienze di Torino
- Foreign Member, Royal Society of Science at Uppsala
- Member, Academia Europaea
- Member, Acatech
- Member, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts
- Arthur Burkhardt Preis
- Grosses Silbernes Ehrenzeichen fuer Verdienste um die Republik
- Oesterreichisches Ehrenkreuz fuer Wissenschaft und Kunst I. Klasse
- Preis der Stadt Wien fuer Geisteswissenschaften
- Goldenes Ehrenzeichen fuer Verdienste um das Land Wien
- Ehrenmitglied der oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
- John Desmond Bernal Prize for Distinguished Contribution to the Field, International Society for the Study of Science (for life time achievements)
Helga Nowotny has published more than 300 articles in scientific journals. In 2021 her book In AI we Trust. Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms was released. Her latest book (in German) is Eigenzeit Revisited in Zeit der Algorithmen. Her previous books include The Cunning of Uncertainty, that was featured by the Financial Times on the list of the best books 2015; 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.
