FINAL CONFERENCE
MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists
Short CV of Main Speakers

Peter GRÜNBERG

Physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics

Peter Andreas Grünberg (born 18 May 1939) is a German physicist, and Nobel
Prize in Physics for his discovery with Albert Fert of giant magnetoresistance
(GMR). The Nobel Committee jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2007
to the Jülich researcher and his colleague Albert Fert from the University of
Paris-Sud. The GMR effect led to a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disks, which
are used in every computer produced today. In particular, the implementation
of the GMR effect within read heads in 1997, less than ten years after the
discovery, increased the miniaturization rate of hard discs from 60 percent per year to almost 100
percent per year.

The GMR effect enables data to be read out very precisely. A sensor that makes use of the GMR effect
registers tiny differences in magnetization as a large measurable change and is therefore able to
function in a highly sensitive manner.

In addition to the technical impact, the discovery of the GMR effect created an entirely new research
area known as spintronics. Spintronics strives to exploit the quantum mechanical property of spin and
the charge of the electrons on an equal footing for future applications in microelectronics and
nanoelectronics. Advancing fundamental research to pave the way for novel technological concepts in
information technology – this motto encapsulates the work of Peter Grünberg and is the guiding
principle of the Peter Grünberg Centre. The Peter Grünberg Centre at Forschungszentrum Jülich is an
essential method and infrastructure platform for nanoelectronics research in the Jülich-Aachen region.
It is the first dedicated to nanoelectronics user research facility in Germany.

Apart from the Nobel Prize, Grünberg's work also has been rewarded with shared prizes in the APS
International Prize for New Materials, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Magnetism
Award, the Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize, the Wolf Prize in Physics and the 2007 Japan Prize. He
won the German Future Prize for Technology and Innovation in 1998 and was named European Inventor
of the Year in the category "Universities and research institutions" by the European Patent Office and
European Commission in 2006.

Raffaella DI IORIO

Scientific Culture and Gender Issues

DG Research, European Commission

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 1 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Istvan PALUGYAI

Journalist

1991- science editor, Nepszabadsag (the biggest daily paper in Hungary)

(responsible for the weekly science, environment, IT columns and the
monthly IT supplement)
1979-1991 science reporter, later editor, Magyar Hírlap (daily paper)
1978-1979 dubbing controller (Filmstudio Pannonia)
1979-1980 Journalist Academy
1972-1977 University of Eotvos Lorand, MS, (biology and chemistry, thesis:
behavioral genetics)

1990. Fellowship, 21. Century Trust, Cambridge, UK

2001- President, Club of Hungarian Science Journalists (CHSJ)

1999-2001 Secreary General, CHSJ
1990-1999 Secretary, CHSJ
Leader of the only existing science and environmental journalism training course in Hungary organized
by the CHSJ

2008- Governing Board member, Euroscience,

2008- Editorial Board member, Euroscientist
2004-2008 President, European Union of Science Journalist Associations (EUSJA)
1998-2004 Vice President, EUSJA
1996-1998 Honorary Secretary, EUSJA
2003-2007 Vice President, World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ)

Awards: Hevesy Award, 1988, Academical Journalist Award, 1991; Zooscar Award, 1998; Knight Cross,
Republican Order 2005; TV moderator and editor 1991-1999 “Those amazing animals” (140 episodes
about animals, nature protection); TV editor 1998-1999 Delta 2000 (Science Magazine)
1999 President of the Local Organizing Committee (2. World Conference of Science Journalists WCSJ,
supported by UNESCO)

Book: There, behind the bars, 1990

Film: Safety Bioindustry, 2000 (Producer and Editor)
Curing with Biotechnology, 2002 (Producer and Editor)
Safe Food, 2003 (Producer and Editor)
For the habitable Earth, 2003 (Producer and Editor)

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 2 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Nuno CRATO

Professor of mathematics and statistics at the

Technical University of Lisbon and University
Dean for Scientific Popularization

He was elected President of the research center Cemapre (2008–10) and

President of the Portuguese Mathematical Society (2004–10).
He got his B.Sc. (licenciatura) and M.S. at the Technical University of Lisbon
(1987) and his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of Delaware
(1992). His research deals with applied probability models, stochastic processes,
time series and applications, namely to economic, financial, biological, and
computer science problems. He is registered at ISI (RID: B-5901-2009) where as of 2009 has 378
citations.

In parallel with his research activity he has been deeply involved in science popularization. He writes
continuously since 1996 a weekly column for the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, has for some years a
short daily radio program, and has cooperated at a great number of productions for the Portuguese
national TV. He wrote a dozen books on science matters. His Matemática das Coisas has been
translated into English to be published by Springer as Figuring It Out: Entertaining Encounters with
Everyday Math. This and his Passeio Aleatório are also being published in Brazil and Italy.

He has been a public voice for the quality of education. He has organized a couple of international
conferences, studies, and debates on education subjects, namely in mathematics education. In 2003
the European Mathematical Society awarded him the first prize for the contest Raising Public
Awareness on Mathematics. In 2008 the European Commission awarded him a Science Award for his
popularization work. The reviewer panel coined the phrase ‘Crato approach’ for his writing style,
saying it is “easy to read but it is also informative and scientifically sound”, using “humour,
intelligence and a distinct journalistic style”. In 2008 he received the Portuguese national medal award
as Comendador of the Prince Henry Order.

Steven MILLER

Professor of Science Communication and Planetary Science at University

College London, Head of the Science and Technology Studies Department

Professor Miller trained as a physical chemist, and then spent several years
working as a political journalist, before joining UCL in 1986. At UCL he
pioneered the teaching of science communication to both undergraduate and
postgraduate students.

Professor Miller is particularly interested in the issues surrounding science and

society at the European level. He is director of the European Science
Communication training network (ESConet: http://www.esconet.org) and chaired the EC’s Expert
Group Benchmarking the Promotion of RTD Culture and Public Understanding of Science. He is co-
author of Science in Public: communication, culture and credibility (Plenum: 1998; Perseus: 2000).

As a planetary scientist, Professor Miller’s main interests lie in understanding how the atmospheres of
giant planets – like Jupiter and Saturn, and some of the hot, giant extrasolar planets that have been
detected orbiting nearby stars – couple with the space environment around them. He has pioneered the
use of the H3+ molecular ion as a probe of the energetics and dynamics of planetary upper
atmospheres. Prof. Miller is co-coordinator of the EU’s Europlanet Research Infrastructure.

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 3 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Stefan DE VOS

Ethics Review- DG Research, European

Commission

Stefan recently joined the Sector of Ethics Review in the Directorate General for
Research of the European Commission. The Sector is responsible for the Ethics
review of all proposals that raise ethics issues and are selected for FP7 funding.
In addition to the review, the sector is also responsible for training actions to
increase the stakeholder awareness on research ethics issues in research.

Stefan holds a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences and a degree in Bio-engineering in Chemistry from the
Free University of Brussels. Before joining the Commission he worked as a researcher at the Structural
Biology Brussels Lab which is part of one of the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) departments.

Frank J. RÜHLI

Anatomist & Academic, University of Zurich

Frank Rühli studied Medicine at the University of Zurich. After graduation

(incl. US-medical license and Dr.med.) he worked at the Institute of
Diagnostic Radiology, University-Hospital Zurich. He was awarded an
International Postgraduate Research Scholarship to undertake a PhD at the
Biological Anthropology and Comparative Anatomy Research Unit, Anatomical
Sciences, University of Adelaide (Australia), where he also held a full-time
lectureship.

He has worked at the Institute of Anatomy in the University of Zürich since 2003, where he was
promoted to senior assistant in 2005 and founded his own research unit, “Applied Anatomy”. In 2007 he
finished his habilitation (“DSc”) on “Evidence-based paleopathology” in the field of anatomy/histology.
He co-heads the “Swiss Mummy Project” and is a research fellow of the Institute of History of Medicine
University of Zurich.

Frank Rühli gained teaching and course coordinator experience (MD, BHSc, MBBS; MSc) at Swiss,
German, UK and Australian Universities in gross anatomy; histology; paleopathology; biomedical
imaging and biological anthropology, both in traditional and “problem-based learning” curricula. He
has supervised multiple BScHons, MD, DVM and DMD dissertations; is Editor and Editor–in-Chief of peer-
reviewed journals (e.g. Elsevier press); referee for various scientific journals and a.o. for the U.S.
National Science Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), National Geograhic Society,
and the German Science Foundation (DFG). Frank Rühli conducts extensive research a.o. on clinical
anatomy, paleoradiology, and paleopathology (especially ancient mummy studies).

Frank Rühli is the President of the German Society of Anthropology, and Vice-President of the Swiss
Society of Anthropology and the Liberal Party FDP Kreis 1. He is member a.o. of the Ethics Committee
of the University of Zurich and he actively serves as a staff officer (medical doctor / captain) in a tank
brigade of the Swiss Armed Forces. He was invited. as a consultant for the scientific investigations of
Pharaoh Tutanchamun, the South Tyrolean Iceman and prehistoric Iranian salt mummies.

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 4 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Wilfried ROSENDAHL

Curator, REM Mannheim

Dr. Wilfried Rosendahl is the Curator of the exhibition Mummies of the

World, the largest exhibition of mummies and artifacts from throughout the
world, and the first of its kind to be seen in the United States.

Developed and curated by the famous Reiss-Engelhorn Museums of Mannheim, Germany, in

collaboration with 15 world-class museums from seven countries, Mummies of the World uses state-of-
the-art scientific methods to reveal the secrets of mummies.

Rosendahl studied Geology, Palaeontology, Zoology and Prehistory at the University of Cologne. From
1991-1994, he served as scientific collaborator at the Neanderthal-Museum; 1994, Ph.D. at the Faculty
of Natural Sciences of the University of Cologne; 1994 and 1995, he taught at the Institute of
Prehistory of the University of Tübingen; 1994 - 1996, he was Researcher and Assistant in Museology at
the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt (Department of Geology, Mineralogy and Palaeontology); 1996
- 1998, researcher in a European Science Foundation project at the Institute of Palaeontology of the
University of Bonn; 1998 till 2003, he was Assistant Professor at the Darmstadt University of
Technology, workgroup Physical Geology and Global Cycles.

Since 2004, Dr. Rosendahl has served as Curator and head of collection in the department "World
Cultures and their Paleoenvironment" at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim, Germany, and as
Scientific Head of the German Mummy Project, Curator and Scientific Head of the mummy exhibition
Mummies - The Dream of Eternal Life. Since 2005, he taught at the Institutes of Anthropology and
Geosciences.

Dario PIOMBINO-MASCALI

Anthropologist, EURAC Institute for Mummies and the Iceman

Dr Dario Piombino-Mascali (Messina, September 16th, 1977) is an Italian

anthropologist, bioarchaeologist and writer. He serves as a mummy studies
specialist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, held within the
European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC), Italy. Piombino-Mascali is coordinator of
the “Sicily Mummy Project”, aimed at investigating the human mummified
remains stored in several crypts and churches of Sicily. He is credited with
having studied and revealed the secret embalming formula of Professor Alfredo
Salafia, a noted Sicilian taxidermist who preserved, amongst others, the body of little Rosalia
Lombardo, also known as the “Sleeping Beauty” of Palermo.

Piombino-Mascali attended courses of anthropology and paleopathology at the Universities of Leicester

and Pisa, where he was awarded a PhD in Paleoanthropology and Pathocoenosis in 2007.

Piombino-Mascali resides in Bolzano, where he also cooperates with the South Tyrol Museum of
Archaeology. He is involved in several research activities, including the German and the Vatican
Mummy Projects.

Since 2008 he was awarded a honorary membership by the American Society of Embalmers, for his
studies on historical embalming in Modern Age Europe.

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 5 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Şükrü KAYA

Bilim ve Teknik - monthly science journal published by the Scientific and

Technological Research Council of Turkey- TÜBİTAK

Academic background: Doctorate of Philosophy, Middle Childhood Education,

August 2007, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, Master of Arts, Middle
Childhood Education, June 2002, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Bachelor of Art, Education, Minor: Mathematics, June 1997, Gazi University,
Ankara, Turkey.

Most recent teaching and work experience: Acting Head of Science and
Society Department at the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). October
2009 to present. Scientific Programs Expert at the Scientific and Technological Research Council of
Turkey (TUBITAK). November 2007 to October 2009. Graduate Research Assistant at The Ohio State
University. (College of Education and Human Ecology) September 2005 to September, 2007.

Research Interests:
The influence of students’ beliefs about mathematics and self-regulated learning on students’
mathematical achievement in mathematics (Dissertation Work). The development of students’ self-
regulatory skills within the classroom context in mathematics. The influence of multiple
representations on students’ learning of mathematics with understanding. In-service teachers’
instructional practices with technology and students’ mathematical achievement and conceptual
development. Implementation of qualitative and quantitative research methods in education.

Selected Publications: (1) Kaya, S, & Pape, S.J. (2008). The influences of self-regulated learning and
student views about mathematics on achievement of Algebra-I students. Article submitted for review.
(2) Observing patterns of classroom connectivity: Protocol development and implementation. S. J.
Pape, S. Kaya, K. E Irving, V. Sanalan, D. T. Owens, L. Abrahamson, S. Granade, & S. Ucar. Presented
at The Institute of Education Sciences (IES),Washington, DC, June 2007.

Professional Associations: American Educational Research Association; Mathematics, Science, and

Technology Educators and Researchers of OSU; National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics;
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Radek BRZÓZKA

Polish National TV

Radek Brzozka (born 1980) has background in information and political

sciences. He began his career back in 1997 working for a local radio station in
his hometown - Plock. Since then Radek has been working in the Polish Public
Radio and Polish Public Television (TVP) as a host of various types of shows and
programs including both news and entertainment.

Polish finals for the Eurovision Song Contest and Polish Music Festival are just
the two examples of big events he has been an MC at. Back in 2006 he has also been making video
materials for scientific show on TVP 1. Radek is currently one of the hosts of TVP1’s morning show and
one of this channel’s presenters. He is also working for Polish Public Radio Channel 1 interviewing
celebrities and politicians who change today’s world.

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 6 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Mario MARTINOLI

European Research Media center, Milan

Mario Martinoli, 44, holds a degree in electronic engineering from the

University of Genoa (1993). Afterwards, he worked as a researcher at the
University of Trento, and in 1996 he joined the Ecole des Mines de Paris, at
Sophia Antipolis. In 1997 he joined the Italian consultancy Databank
Consulting. Since then, his scientific expertise has been applied in the fields of
marketing and media communication, carried out for major companies in Italy
and abroad. He is the founder and managing director of iCons (1999), a Milan-
based consultancy specialised in market research and business analysis. He is also founder, owner,
publisher and director of the Brussels-based media communication platform youris.com (2005), today
one of the most acknowledged TV communication services for journalists on the results of the European
research in various scientific domains.

He has been project manager of several EU-funded projects in the area of science communication,
most recently the FP7 projects NANO-TV, HEALTH-TV, GRRENTRANSPORT-TV, which develop and
deliver to the European TV media the major results and discoveries in the respective fields of research.
Besides Italian, he is fluent in English, French and German. http://www.youris.com/?ln=152

Kathleen Van DAMME

Senior Communications Consultant

Lab To Media Managing director (labtomedia.eu)
Head of AthenaWeb (athenaweb.org)

After studies in contemporary art history in Brussels and Montréal, Kathleen

continued her career in the fields of communication, audiovisual and ICT. For
the past 20 years, she has assumed the positions of audiovisual and multimedia
producer and taken on advisory missions for the European Commission directly related to the media.
Since 1996, Kathleen has led several European Commission audiovisual communication framework
contracts, including Research, Communication, Regio, European Social Fund and Environment DG’s.
She created in 2005 - on behalf of the Research DG - the prize-winning AthenaWeb portal and managed
it since. Opened to the public in 2007, the AthenaWeb catalogue holds nowadays +/- 1.200 science
videos produced by the EU broadcasters, producers, laboratories and institutions. The portal counts
between 10 and 13.000 visitors viewing 35.000 scientific films per month.
In 2006 Kathleen launched LAB TO MEDIA, a communication agency based in Brussels, dedicated to the
science, innovation, sustainable development and the environment which operates pan European
projects converging the ICT and audiovisual and their marketing toward their targeted audiences.

She is member of the professional associations: World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, the
International Association for Media and Science, The European Documentary Network, the European
Communication Research and Education Organization and is partner of the Sunny Side of the Doc
market, the European Broadcasting Union Science and Education Group and Ecsite, the European
network of science centres and museums.- AthenaWeb, LabtoMedia
http://www.labtomedia.eu/; http://www.athenaweb.org/

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 7 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Bettina WEIZ

Bayrischen Rundfunk

Dr. Bettina Weiz is an award winning journalist and science communicator

based in Munich, Germany. A cultural anthropologist by training, she did
several years of fieldwork in India, about whose society, culture and economy
she has been publishing. Just like other scientific topics, over the past one and
a half decades in newspapers, on the internet and mainly in Germany’s
network of public radio. She is a regular contributor to the Bavarian
Broadcasting Corporation’s science department which is one of the few of its
kind with a long tradition of covering humanities as well as natural sciences. Bettina Weiz has been
involved in communicating science outside the beaten track of established science programmes, for
example in products for tourists or for specific target groups such as migrants. Her expertise in
innovative methods to integrate scientific content and agents, especially from the humanities, in
products for the public domain has also led to lectures in the universities of Tübingen, Münster, Munich
and Bayreuth.

Publications of 2009 /2010:

• Radio documentaries on water, migration, nature conservation, urbanism, development
politics, pedagogics, ethnic minorities: www.br-online.de
• „The man makes the village makes the man“, in: Village Matters. Relocating villages in the
contemporary anthropology of India, D. Mines and N. Yazgi (eds.); Oxford University Press 2010
• „On air. Ethnologie im Radio“, in: Berufsorientierung für Kulturwissenschaftler, Bettina Beer et
al (eds.), Reimer-Verlag 2009
• A series of audiobooks on towns, including London, Lisbon, Leipzig, New York, Budapest,
Amsterdam, Munich, Berlin, Dresden, Rome; ADAC Publishing house, online on www.adac.de > TourSet
audio

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 8 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Moderators:

Albert ZINK

Paleopathologist, Scientific Director EURAC Institute for Mummies and the

Iceman

Albert Zink born 1965 in München, Germany. He has studied biology and did his
PhD thesis at the Institue of Anthropology and Human Genetics, University of
Munich, "Kindersterblichkeit im frühen Mittelalter - Morphologische und
paläopathologische Ergebnisse an der Skelettserie von Altenerding, Ldkr. Erding,
Bayern".

Scientific career:
• 7/1998 - 6/2002 Postdoctoral position at the Institute of Pathology; München/Germany (Director:
Prof. Dr. U. Löhrs). Research focus (DFG research grant): Identification of pathological alterations
in ancient Egyptian mummies with a major interest in the molecular detection of pathogens by
extracting and amplifying ancient DNA.
• 6/2002 – 9/2004 University Assistant, Division of Paleopathology, Institute of Pathology, Academic-
Teaching Hospital München-Bogenhausen. Continuation of the DFG research grant.
• 10/2004-5/2007 Senior Researcher, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, AG
Nanobiomed (group Prof. Dr. W.M. Heckl). Research area: Application of nanotechnological
methods for the study of biological sample, structural and mechanical properties of collagen fibrils
in normal and pathological bone tissue.
• 1/2005 Habilitation (= Assoc. Professor) in Human Biology, Faculty of Medicine
„Paläopathologie von Krankheiten im alten Ägypten unter besonderer Berücksichtigung molekularer
Untersuchungen zur Tuberkulose“
• Since 6/2007 Scientific Director, Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, EURAC research,
Bolzano/Italy

Günther COLOGNA

Director EURAC education

Günther Cologna, born in Bolzano, studied and worked in Austria, the United
States and Japan for many years before returning to South Tyrol. He holds a
master degree in English. Since 1996 he is the director of EURAC’s educational
department. Initially it was called Academy of Public Administration and trained
the (young) civil servants of the local administration. In 2004 the educational
programme opened for managers and employees of private companies as well.
Since then the education section of the European Academy Bolzano is called EURAC education.

Günther Cologna´s work experiences include – teaching, professional translator (English-German),

trainer for intercultural communication and indulges in journalistic activity. He is member of various
scientific committees (ISAPREL, 1996-98, Management Salzburg Business School, 2002 -). Trilingual
German-Italian-English, with a good knowledge of oral Japanese. Volunteer activities: Chairman of
Italy-Tibet (2002-08), management of cooperation projects (cultural projects, humanitarian aid,
training project for young graduates).

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 9 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010) 
 
 

Sigrid HECHENSTEINER

Journalist and Editor

Sigrid Hechensteiner studied simultaneous interpretation (German, Italian,

English) at the University of Vienna, specializing in scientific topics, and began
working as a freelance interpreter and translator. In 1996 she started to build up
the “Science Communication“ department at the research center EURAC in Alto
Adige (Northern Italy), while specializing at the same time in science journalism
through professional development classes at the “Institut für Publizistik- und
Kommunikationswissenschaft” at the FU Berlin. She was from the very beginning and still serves as
Editor-in-Chief of ACADEMIA, a quarterly popular science magazine published by EURAC. In 2002 she
worked as a science journalist for the newspaper “Hamburger Abendblatt”. In 2003 she worked as an
editor for the sailing magazine “Yacht”, based in Hamburg. Since 2004 Sigrid has been working as
scientific journalist and editor.

Peter FARBRIDGE

Freelance writer and translator

Peter Farbridge is a freelance writer and translator who works in journalism,

documentary and theatre. Peter began his writing career over 20 years ago at
the Modern Times Stage Company in Toronto, Canada. With them he has
penned numerous adaptations of Western plays, co-written an original work,
and has, alongside Iranian-Canadian director Soheil Parsa, translated and
adapted seven contemporary Iranian works.

An anthology of these translations-adaptations was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2008.

Peter also writes and directs documentary films, notably “Change From Within” (2003), which screened
at several Canadian festivals and was broadcast in French and English. Peter is a member of the
editorial team of the EURAC scientific magazine ACADEMIA and has his own writing company,
FecundIDÉA.

Final Conference – MY SCIENCE European Programme for young journalists 
Short CV of Main Speakers , Page 10 of 10, (Draft 25 May 2010)