Academic Positions
Since 1999
Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna
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2004-2014 & 2018-2024
Head of the Department of Science and Technology Studies
2023-2026
Member of the Management Board of the Environment and Climate Research Hub
2020-2023
Deputy Director of the Environmental Sciences Research Network of the University of Vienna (Director: Thilo Hoffmann)
2015-2024
Head of the Interfaculty Research Platform “Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice”
2014-2018
Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences
2012-2014
Vice-Dean for Research and early-stage researchers of the Faculty of Social Sciences
2009-2014
Vice-Study Program Director Sociology/MA Program “Science-Technology-Society”
2003
Invited Professor at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zurich
1998-1999
Associate Professor at the Department for Philosophy of Science and Social Studies of Science, University of Vienna
1997-1998
Professor at Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (Science Studies Unit GERSULP)
1994
Invited Professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
1989-1997
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy of Science and Social Studies of Science University of Vienna
1988-1989
Third-Party funded researcher at the Department of Philosophy of Science and Social Studies of Science, University of Vienna
1983-1988
Research Associate at CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research) in Geneva as member of the European CERN History Team
Education
1997
Habilitation in Social Studies of Science (Wissenschaftsforschung & Wissenschaftssoziologie), University of Vienna
1983
PhD in Physics (Theoretical High Energy Physics/Minor in Mathematics)
1975-1983
Studies of Physics, Mathematics & Astronomy at the University of Vienna
Recognition and Awards
2025
Friedrich Schiedel Award by the TU Munich for outstanding contributions to the interface of technology and society
2024
Award of the City of Vienna for outstanding contributions in Social Sciences and Humanities
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2022
Falling Walls Global Call Winner, Social Sciences and Humanities – Innovation in Reverse
2022
Awarded an ERC Advanced Grant – Innovation Residues: Modes and Infrastructures of Caring for our Longue-durée Academic Futures (2023-2027)
2019
Elected Member of the Academia Europaea
2017
4S Infrastructure Award of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) (honors exemplary contributions of STS scholars or entities to building and maintaining the institutional and intellectual infrastructures that permit our field to sustain itself, and to grow appropriately) for the work as editor of the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies
2015
ARS DOCENDI – Austrian State Prize for Innovative Excellent Teaching
2014
ZIMAN AWARD of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology for a significant innovative cooperation in a venture to promote the public understanding of the social dimensions of science (together with the co-authors of the ESF Policy Briefing “Science in Society: caring for our futures in turbulent times”)
2014
UNIVIE Teaching 2014 Award (lived modularisation) together with colleagues for the introductory phase of the interdisciplinary Master Program “Science-Technology-Society”
2007
Recognized for the Services to the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) – Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s journal Science, Technology and Human Values
Leadership Roles and Services to the Community
Academic Publishing
2021-2024
Editor (together with Alan Irwin) of the Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Studies, Edward Elgar Publishing
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2014-2017
Editor of the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, 4th edition, MIT Press (co-editors Rayvon Fouché, Clark Miller, and Laurel Smith-Doerr).
2002-2007
Editor-in-chief of the international peer-reviewed STS journal “Science, Technology & Human Values” (SAGE Publications) (2002-2007)
Membership in Editorial Boards
Science as Culture; Social Epistemology; Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook; East Asian Science and Technology Studies; Journal of Responsible Innovation; Big Data & Society
Leadership in Academic Associations
2017-2021
President of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
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2015-2017
President and founding member of STS-Austria (Austrian Association of Science and Technology Studies)
2004-2006
Österreichische Gesellschaft für Soziologie (co-director of the section “Technology and Science Studies”)
2002-2004
Council member of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S)
2002-2022
Founding member of the Science and Democracy Network (Harvard) – member of the international governing council
1995-1999
Organizational secretary of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
Reviewer/Evaluator
- Member in the Review Panel for the STS Department in Cornell University, US
- Member of the review panel and remote reviewer for the European Research Council (Starting Grants) 2012-2017; 2020; 2021; 2023
- Evaluator (panel member) for the German Excellence Initiative (2019)
- Reviewer for EC proposals (regular)
- Reviewer for numerous journals in the field of Science and Technology Studies (ST&HV, Minerva, Social Studies of Science, Science as Culture, …..)
- Reviewer for national funding agencies of projects and whole programs (e.g. Norwegian Research Council, ANR, SNF, NSF, BMBF, ….) – currently SNF
- Panel member for the evaluation of Helmholtz Society (Germany)
- Reviewer for evaluation of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University (2015)
Conference Organisations
25-26 May 2023
Revaluing European research infrastructures – Knowledge, innovation, and the public good, International Workshop, Skylounge, University of Vienna.
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19-20 October 2017
Editing the Genomes with CRISPR. Between scientific breakthrough and societal challenges, Billrothhaus, Vienna; together with Christa Schleper.
19-20 October 2016
Making Space and Taking Time for Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice, Albert Schweitzer Haus, Vienna
3-5 December 2015
Living in Technoscientific Worlds. International Conference. Celebrating the Launch of STS Austria, Aula, University of Vienna Campus.
30 June – 2 July 2014
Science and Democracy, International workshop of the Science and Democracy Network, organized by the Department of Science and Technology Studies, Aula ,University of Vienna Campus.
1-2 December 2011
Making (In)Appropriate Bodies – Between Medical Models of Health, Moral Economies and Everyday Practices, International Conference, organized by the Department of Social Studies of Science, Albert Schweitzer Haus, Vienna.
22-24 September 2011
Governing Futures. Imagining, Negotiating & Taming Emerging Technosciences, International Conference, organized by the Department of Social Studies of Science, Albert Schweitzer Haus, Vienna.
9-11 June 2010
Risky entanglements? Contemporary research cultures imagined and practised, International Conference, Albert Schweitzer Haus, Vienna.
15 September 2006
Information-Based Decision-Making in the Medical Context, International Workshop, Aula ,University of Vienna Campus.
21-23 September 2006
Engaging science and society in the ethics of genome research: analyses, reflections and perspectives, International Conference , Small Festivity Hall, University of Vienna.
27-30 September 2000
Worlds in Transition: Technoscience, Citizenship and Culture in the 21st Century, 4S-EASST International Conference, Main Building, University of Vienna.
1992
When Science meets the public, International Workshop, Institut Français de Vienne, Vienna.