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European Commission, DG RTD (Moderator)

Mary Kavanagh works in the International Cooperation Directorate of DG

Research and Innovation at the European Commission, in Brussels. She is

the Deputy Head and Senior Expert in the Unit which deals with cooperation

with North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. Previously, she was

the Counsellor for Science, Technology and Education at the EU Delegation

to the United States. She has a PhD in Plant Science from University College

Cork, Ireland and carried out post-doctoral research in France and

Switzerland before swapping the laboratory for science policy.

Strategic Forum for International Cooperation

Chair of the European Strategic Forum for International Cooperation (SFIC),

Dan Andrée is a Special Advisor to the Swedish Agency for Innovation

Systems (VINNOVA) and to the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research

with specific tasks related to European Research and Innovation Policy. He

has more than 30 years of professional experience whereof more than 10

years of management at high level, having been director of two

governmental agencies. He received the "Medal for zeal and probity in

service to the Kingdom of Sweden”. He has worked with and within the

European Institutions for the last 20 years mainly related to research and innovation policy. Dan Andrée

represents Sweden in several Committees such as the European Research Area and Innovation

Committee (ERAC). Earlier in his career he was a researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology,

Stockholm in Optimisation and Systems Theory. He has worked for industry in India and Israel. He has

been Science Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in London.

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President of the European Research Council

Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon is President of the European Research

Council (ERC) as of 1 January 2014. He was the Director of the Institut des

Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) from 1994 till 2013. This international

research institute located near Paris, France, was built as the European

counterpart of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was also the

first ERC Panel Chair in Mathematics, for Starting Grants. A mathematician by

training, he spent his whole career as a fellow of the Centre National de la

Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He held a Professor position at École polytechnique from 1986 to 2012.

From 1990 to 1992, he was President of the Société Mathématique de France and President of the

European Mathematical Society from 1995 to 1998. He is a former member of the Board of the

EuroScience organisation (2002-2006) and served on EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) committees from

2004 until December 2013. Professor Bourguignon received the Prix Paul Langevin in 1987 and the Prix du

Rayonnement Français in Mathematical Sciences and Physics from the Académie des Sciences de Paris in

1997. He is a foreign member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences. In 2005, he was elected

honorary member of the London Mathematical Society and has been the secretary of the mathematics

section of the Academia Europaea. In 2008, he was made Doctor Honoris Causa of Keio University, Japan,

and, in 2011, Doctor Honoris Causa of Nankai University, China. In addition to his mother tongue, French,

Professor Bourguignon is fluent in English and German.

EU Delegation to the USA, Washington DC

James Gavigan has been Head of the Science, Technology and Innovation

section at the Delegation of the European Union to the USA, since September

2012. He has worked for the European Commission since 1990 including as

Head of Unit for European Research Area policy from 2007 to 2012. He is a

graduate of Trinity College Dublin (BA, PhD – Physics) and the University of

Warwick (Masters in Public Administration).

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European Research Council

Alejandro Martín Hobdey studied physics at the University of Manchester and

obtained a PhD in nuclear physics at the University of Rochester, USA.

Following postdoctoral work at MIT on laser cooling and trapping of atoms,

he was awarded a position as Research Scientist in 1988 at the Instituto de

Óptica in Madrid, and then went on to work on medical physics as a Research

Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He has worked in several research

programmes within DG Research since joining the European Commission in

1994, including the New and Emerging Science and Technology (NEST) initiative of Framework Programme

6. He has participated in the setting up the European Research Council since its inception, having been

the Head of Unit for the Starting Grants Unit until October 2012. He is currently the Head of Unit for Call

and Project Follow-up Coordination within the Scientific Department.

ERC Starting Grant, Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de

Barcelona

Albert Quintana is a tenure-track Ramón y Cajal investigator in the Department

of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology. He earned a Bachelor in Science in

Biology (Biomedicine) in 2001 and a PhD in Neuroscience in 2007, both from

the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. During his PhD focused on the role of

cytokines in the development of neuropathology and neuroinflammation in

traumatic brain injury. As a postdoc (2008-2013), he joined Dr. Richard

Palmiter lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was the lead scientist developing and

characterizing a mouse model of mitochondrial disease (Leigh Syndrome). In 2013 he was appointed

Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics (University of Washington) and group leader at the

Seattle Children’s Research Institute. In 2015 he returned to the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona as a

Ramón y Cajal investigator and ERC grantee (Starting Grant). His research focuses on using a multi-level

approach and to develop new tools to identify the molecular determinants of neuronal susceptibility to

mitochondrial disease. He has authored over 30 research articles and 2 book chapters.

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Embassy of France to the United States

Dr. Minh-Hà Pham was appointed Counsellor for Science and Technology at

the Embassy of France in the United States in Washington on 1 September,

2013. After coordinating scientific cooperation for the Asia-Pacific Region for

the French National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la

Recherche Scientifique, CNRS), she served as Director of the European

Research and International Cooperation Office (DERCI) in charge of

implementing the European and international policy of CNRS. As a member of

the board of ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology, a consortium of 12 “Grandes Ecoles” or Engineering

and Management Schools), Dr Pham was in charge of promoting ParisTech at the international level and

the recruitment of international students. She also contributed to the creation of a Europe-China Master’s

program focused on renewable energy. During her time at the French National Institute of Research in

Agronomy (INRA), Dr Pham was the head of a research laboratory and she has published 100 articles,

chapters in 5 books and 2 books on honeybee biology, targeting the general public. She supervised 16

PhD students and coordinated a European Union project investigating the impact of GMOs on beneficial

insects. Dr Minh-Hà Pham was member of various national expert committees for the French Ministries

of Agriculture, Research and Environment. Dr. Pham also participates in the European Union EXPERTS

Program for cooperation with Asia. Her scientific background is in neurobiology and the risk assessment

of GMOs and pesticides on beneficial insects. She graduated from the Institut National Agronomique de

Paris-Grignon (now AgroParisTech). She obtained her PhD in neuroscience at Pierre et Marie Curie

University (Paris 6) in 1983, her Habilitation in 1992 and is a Senior Scientist at CNRS.

Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) Office in the US

Mireille Guyader is the representative of the National Institute for Health and

Medical Research (Inserm) in the United States, since September 2011 and

serves as director of the Inserm-USA office at the Embassy of France in

Washington, DC. This is the liaison office between Inserm’s Headquarters in

Paris and main biomedical research institutions in the United States, within

the context of the new French Alliance for Life Sciences, Aviesan. From 2006

to 2011, she was the Scientific Attaché in charge of the Life Sciences domain

at the Office for Science and Technology of the Embassy of France and was based in Los Angeles,

California. She was instrumental in the establishment and strengthening of cooperation and exchange

programmes between French and US research institutions in the biomedical field. She has been working

at Inserm for more than 20 years, first as a junior and later as senior research scientist, in the fields of

molecular biology, molecular imaging and vaccine approaches to HIV. She has developed research

projects at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Columbia University in New York City, the Centre Medical

Universitaire in Geneva, the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, and more recently at the Center for

Immunology of Marseille-Luminy. She has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Paris VII.

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Swissnex Boston, Consulate of Switzerland

Jonas Brunschwig holds a BA in International Affairs from Suffolk University in

Boston. He obtained his degree in 2011, after transferring from Buenos Aires,

Argentina where he studied at from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he spent a year at

the University of Zurich studying economics. After graduation, he joined

Uncharted Play, a Harvard social enterprise, and two years later he joined the

Boston Global Forum, a think tank chaired by Governor Michael Dukakis.

In 2013 Mr. Brunschwig joined MIT in the Office of Foundation Relations, where

he spent the last two years working on a portfolio of projects in four of MIT's five

schools, while also growing the Institute's engagement with international and corporate foundations.

Since September 2015 he is the Project Leader for Academic Relations at swissnex Boston, a Consulate of

Switzerland dedicated to Science, Innovation, Art and Education.

Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT

Currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Nada Bjelobrk is investigating the interaction of droplets and nanotextured

surfaces for improved heat transfer in heat exchangers in power plants. Nada

joined the Varanasi Research Group in March 2013 as a SNSF "Early Postdoc

Mobility" Fellow. She obtained her PhD, M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees at ETH Zurich

where she developed an acoustic levitator for contactless transport and

manipulation of droplets suspended in air (Poulikakos Group) and how to in-situ

functionalise nanoparticles using flame spray pyrolysis (Pratsinis Group).

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva

Jesse Sargent is a PhD candidate in the Department of International History at the

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva,

Switzerland. His research project focuses on the historical circulation of

missionaries in the Society of Jesus and the construction of church administration

in Asia during the 16th and 17th centuries. These Jesuits stressed attention to

local circumstances, that is, culture, society, and cosmology, in attempting to

adapt their Christian world-view in ways comprehensible and persuasive within

such local contexts. Furthermore, the Jesuit example assists us in rethinking the features of the modern

world, imagining a globalizing society shaped decisively (rather than threatened) by human mobility. Cast

against the disorder of modern Foreign Affairs, studying the past through both longue duree and global

perspectives demonstrates resoundingly that movement and circulation of ideas, objects, and people

plays a central and natural role in the unfolding story of humanity.

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Wallonia-Brussels International

Scientific Liaison Officer USA, Wallonia-Brussels International, Maxime holds a

Master Degree in Political Sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He

currently serves as Scientific Liaison Officer for WBI – Wallonia-Brussels

International, the Belgian public administration, in charge of the foreign relations

of Wallonia and Brussels’ regions. Maxime helps to foster all kind of scientific

exchanges between Wallonia-Brussels and the US. Before this, Maxime has

worked for 3 years in the Education Department of the European Society of

Anaesthesiology (ESA). He is based in Boston.

Research Foundation, Flanders (FWO)

Since 2015, Gregory Absillis is working as a science policy officer at the Research

Foundation – Flanders (FWO) in the unit of international affairs. His main

responsibilities are, amongst others, the management of international mobility

programmes and bilateral research cooperations with various partner agencies

across the world. He is also actively involved in the implementation of the EU

COFUND postdoctoral programme [PEGASUS]2. He previously worked as an FWO

postdoctoral fellow at the Chemistry department of KULeuven where he also

obtained a PhD in 2011. His research activities mainly focused on the (bio)

chemical applications of polyoxometalates and covered the fields of (bio) inorganic chemistry, material

science and catalysis. During his time as a postdoc he spent short periods abroad at the European

Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble (France) and at the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS)

in Sofia (Bulgaria). Besides a master in Chemistry, he also holds a Postgraduate in Business Administration

from KULeuven.

Consul General in Boston

Fionnuala Quinlan was appointed Consul General of Ireland to Boston in

September 2015. Prior to this, she was Director of Press Relations at the

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dublin, where she managed the

Department’s engagement with traditional and new media. She joined the

Department in 2009 as Press Adviser for Irish Aid, the Government’s overseas

aid programme, and travelled extensively through Africa and Asia in that role.

Before joining the Department, Fionnuala worked as a journalist and editor in

Ireland and abroad for almost 15 years. She was Features Editor at the Irish

Examiner, with responsibility for daily features, Weekend magazine and columnists; Deputy Features

Editor, Health Correspondent and Senior News Journalist. She has also worked as a journalist at Sydney’s

Daily Telegraph and was News Editor and reporter for the The Evening Echo in Ireland. She was a frequent

contributor to Radio France Internationale, having lived and worked in France for more than two years.

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FECYT Representative, Embassy of Spain, Washington DC

Biomedical scientist and expert on science and innovation policies with

extensive international experience in academia, public administration and multi-

lateral organizations. Lived and worked abroad for over 20 years. Focused on

international scientific cooperation, social innovation, scientific communities

and capacity building for a sustainable future through science and innovation.

ECUSA-Boston chapter

Immunologist with extensive expertise in the study of autoimmune diseases

(lupus, type 1 diabetes) and solid background in clinical trial execution and pre-

clinical research. President and co-founder of the non-profit organization of

Spanish scientists in the USA (ECUSA)-Boston chapter, the objective of which is to

promote science outreach, career development, education and networking

opportunities among the Spanish scientific community in the USA as well as

building bridges between Spain and the USA.

Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM),

Professional development Program at ECUSA.

Dr. Dominguez is an Assistant Professor of Hematology-Oncology in the

Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). She

holds a BS and MS in biochemistry from the Universidad del Pais Vasco, and a PhD

in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Universidad Autónoma de

Madrid. Dr. Dominguez conducted post-doctoral research at Beth Israel Hospital

and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, with the support of research fellowships

from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the Basque government. Her research interest is

to understand the molecular mechanisms and the biological role of the Wnt signaling pathway in embryo

development and in cancer. In addition, Dr. Dominguez has a long-standing commitment to professional

development. She is the leader of the Professional development Program at ECUSA , the executive

director of professional development of BU’s BEST and the co-chair of the Faculty Development and

Diversity Committee in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Dominguez was a panelist in the Nature jobs

career Expo in Boston, and regularly gives professional development seminars to students and faculty.

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German Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Robin Mishra is the Head of the Science and Technology Section of the

German Embassy in Washington, D.C. He studied law at the Universities of

Münster and Paris. After completing his Ph.D. and legal training, he was an

assistant to the CEO of the RTL Group, Europe’s largest broadcasting company.

After working as a TV journalist for Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), he switched

roles in 2001 to become a Berlin correspondent for the weekly newspaper

Rheinischer Merkur. His commitment to transatlantic cooperation and

understanding dates back to 2004 when he received an Arthur F. Burns Journalism Fellowship and wrote

for the Chicago Tribune. Following this experience, he became Berlin Bureau Chief for the Rheinischer

Merkur. Dr. Robin Mishra was awarded the Arthur F. Burns Prize in 2005 and the Roman-Herzog-

Medienpreis in 2009 for his articles. He is also author of various political books. In 2010, he joined the

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Berlin and served the Federal Ministers

Annette Schavan and Johanna Wanka as Spokesman and Head of Press and Strategic Communications.

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Anne Knab is a project officer in the department of “International Research

Marketing” at the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD). She

organizes events within the national campaign “Research in Germany”

including consultation on PhD and Post-Doc opportunities in Germany. Anne

graduated in Political Sciences, Sociology and Recent and Modern History at

the University of Bonn. After graduation she worked as an editor for the

educational publishing house Bildungsverlag EINS. Since 2011, Anne is in charge of organizing research

marketing events for the DAAD, such as science tours, PhD matchmaking events, and the German

presence at international career fairs.

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German Academic International Network (GAIN)

Gerrit K. Roessler is the director of the German Academic International Network

(GAIN) in New York City, a joint initiative of the German Academic Exchange

Service (DAAD), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Alexander von

Humboldt Foundation. He designs and organizes events, workshops and

trainings to aid German researchers in North America with their professional

development. He has published essays on building and maintaining

international networks and support structures for mobile researchers in various

journals in Germany and abroad. His goal is to help early-career scientists and

serve as a resource and connector. He received his Ph.D. in German literature and culture from the

University of Virginia in 2013 and an Erstes Staatsexamen in music and English from the University of

Dortmund, Germany in 2007. From 2011 to 2012 he worked as Assistant Adjunct Professor at Queens

College, CUNY.

KoWi - European Liaison Office of the German Research Organisations

Sarah Raphael has been EU Funding Expert at the European Liaison Office of the

German Research Organisations (Kowi) at the Bonn office since 2012. At the

moment, she is coordinator of the KoWi part of the National Contact Point (NCP)

for the European Research Council (ERC) and head of the KoWi team for the Marie

Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). Her priorities lie on the funding opportunities of

the ERC, the MSCA and EU collaborative research funding in the Social Sciences

and Humanities. In this context, she specifically focuses on international

cooperation. Since 2016, Sarah Raphael is chair of the ERC Working Group within the IGLO network

(Informal Group of R&D Liaison Offices) in Brussels. Being a linguist by training, Sarah Raphael has studied

at the University of Freiburg and the University of Aberdeen and has been awarded a Master’s degree in

2010. She has participated as a speaker in several national, European and international conferences.

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European Commission, DG Education and Culture

Daniel Göhring joined the European Commission's Directorate-General for

Education and Culture in 2013, where he is mainly responsible for the legal

aspects of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, policy development, and

copyright in education. In addition, he also worked in the field of EU higher

education policy, where he dealt with the recognition of foreign qualifications.

Before joining the European Commission in Brussels, he worked for European

Union missions in the field of development policy & democracy support in various countries, including

Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria and Tunisia. He studied law and sociology at the University of Graz (Austria),

the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (France) and the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada).

Research Executive Agency, Marie Skłodowska Curie Research and Innovation

Staff Exchange

Fredrik Olsson Hector graduated from the Engineering Physics School of Uppsala

University, Sweden, in 1990. He started to work in the nuclear industry where he

was encouraged to do research. In 1995 he got a PhD in applied mathematics

from Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Both as a PhD

candidate and Post Doc, Fredrik was very mobile and more than half of the PhD

thesis was done as visiting scientist in the US mostly at UCLA and Los Alamos

National Labs. Following the PhD he took up a post at Colorado State University and worked at NOAA in

Boulder with ocean modelling. He joined the European Commission in 1998 and since 2003 he has

worked with the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions, an EU research program that encourages mobility

among researchers and promotes improved career structures for researchers. Today, he heads the unit

Marie Skłodowska Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange – providing international mobility

opportunities for well over 5000 researchers per year from around the world. As he now lives in Belgium

he has to work harder to get his two kids to learn essential things like downhill skiing.

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The Giovanni Armenise Harvard Foundation

Lisa Mayer has been at Harvard Medical School since 2000 and at the Armenise

Harvard Foundation since 2008. She worked closely with the late HMS Dean

Emeritus Daniel Tosteson, and the founder, Count Giovanni Auletta Armenise,

and has a strong belief in the mission they shared to form programs that foster

collaboration between the U.S. and Italian basic science research. Prior to the

Medical School, Ms. Mayer was the Dean of Enrollment Services at Simmons

College, where she worked for 22 years. She has a Master’s Degree in Higher

Education Administration from Harvard.

The Giovanni Armenise Harvard Foundation

Elisabetta Vitali joined the Foundation in 2014. She supervises the Italian

Programs including the Career Development Award, and the communication

strategy of the Foundation. Previously, Ms. Vitali worked in corporate finance

for almost 20 years, both in the USA and in Italy, where she was partner of the

Italian infrastructure fund F2i-sgr. She is thoroughly committed to the goal of

improving basic science opportunities in Italy, and holds a Master of Science in

economics from Universita’ Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.

CzechInvest, New York Office

Since 2011, Jan is Director of East Coast Operations at CzechInvest. The primary

aim of CzechInvest foreign representation is to attract FDI (with particular focus

on high added value projects in hi-tech, ICT, biotechnology, clean tech and new

materials) to the Czech Republic. Jan provides all information a potential

investor may need to consider the Czech Republic as a suitable investment

location and serves as a link between the USA and the Czech Republic. Jan

currently also explores ways of how to foster connections between Czech R&D

and Czech innovation/technology companies and their counterparts in the USA. Previously served over

two years at CzechInvest Prague HQ as an Aerospace sector specialist setting up investment promotion

strategy of the field, analyzing trends and advising to large multinational companies entering the Czech

Republic. Jan holds Master’s degree in International Relations and European Studies from the

Metropolitan University in Prague and spent a semester at the Salford University in Machester, UK.

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Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Washington D.C.

Since 2003, Dr. Grażyna Żebrowska has been working at the Embassy of the

Republic of Poland in Washington DC. As science & technology adviser she

initiates and facilitates cooperation between Polish and American partners in

science and higher education. Her main responsibilities include promotion of

Polish universities and research centers among American students and

scientists. Dr. Zebrowska holds an M.Sc. in physics and a dual Ph.D. in

medical physics from the University of Rennes 1, France and the University of

Gdansk, Poland.

Foundation for Polish Science

Adam Zieliński - deputy director at the Foundation for Polish Science, Warsaw;

political scientist and graduate of the Warsaw University; he has been working

for the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) since 2004 as a program officer and

as of 2008 as a deputy director. Since 2011 he is heading the FNP Researchers

Development Section. He is also member of the Audit Committee of the

European Foundation Centre.

Program Director High Tech NL

Jos van Erp holds a master degree in Economic Geography and French

language. He worked 20 years for the Dutch technology concern ‘Stork’ in

various positions, from educational specialist to general management. In 2008

Jos van Erp joined FME, the largest employers association in the Netherlands

for the technological industry. He now is responsible for the development of

the Human Capital agenda of high-tech cluster HTSM (High Tech Systems &

Materials). International employers branding is part of this agenda. Besides

that, Jos van Erp is a free-lance teacher of Group dynamics, Business

Development and Learning & Developing in Companies at several Universities in France, Belgium and the

Netherlands. He is author of several articles and case studies in the field of Learning & Development

related to human behaviour in high-tech companies.

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Euraxess-Links North America

Born in Slovakia, Viktoria Bodnarova graduated from the Metropolitan University

in Prague, Czech Republic in 2008 having completed a Master’s degree in

International Relations and European studies. Apart from Slovakia and the Czech

Republic, she has spent part of her student life in the UK, France, the USA and

Canada. Right after her studies she started to work at the Academy of Sciences

of the Czech Republic as a project manager and a national coordinator of the

Czech EURAXESS Network. During 5 years (2008-2013) of working there, her main responsibilities were

setting up a national network, administering national as well as European projects, communicating with

national authorities regarding international mobility and providing practical support to researchers and

their family members moving to the Czech Republic. She was a national expert in the Working Group for

Human Resources and Mobility, EURAXESS Network Management Working Group and for the questions

of Long Term Permit for the Purpose of Scientific Research. Since 2013 she is working as the EURAXESS

Links Regional Representative for North America (USA and Canada), informing the community of

European and non-European scientists based in North America (approx. 4700 members) about the

funding and career opportunities the European Research Area has to offer and being their first contact

point before their move to Europe.