GÉANT2 Launch Event Speaker Biographies

Opening Ceremony

Hans Döbbeling  

General Manager, DANTE

Hans Döbbeling joined DANTE as General Manager in August 2004. He holds a degree in Physics and obtained his PhD from the University of Heidelberg in 1981. He worked for twelve years as an Experimental Physicist in Medium-Energy Nuclear Physics at MPI für Kernphysik Heidelberg, at CERN in Geneva, at KEK in Tsukuba, and at PSI in Villigen.

In the early nineties, he became an IT Services Manager. He was Head of the Analysis Software Development group at GSI in Darmstadt, and subsequenly in charge of the IT Services of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg.

François Biltgen  

Minister of Culture, Higher Education and Research of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg

Between 1999 and 2004, François Biltgen assumed the responsibilities of Minister of Labour and Employment, Minister for Relations with Parliament, Minister for Religious Communities and also Minister in charge of Communications. In this last capacity, he was also responsible for the e-Luxembourg plan. Following the elections on 13 June 2004 François Biltgen was reappointed on 31 July 2004 to his duties as Minister of Labour and Employment and Minister for Religious Communities, and found himself entrusted with the duties of Minister for Culture, Higher Education and Research.

Viviane Reding 

Commissioner for Information Society and Media, European Commission

Born in Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) in 1951, Commissioner Viviane Reding is the Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, which is one of the strategic portfolios to achieve the Commission’s overall policy to enhance growth and employment in the European Union.

This is Ms Reding’s second mandate in the European Commission;  she was previously responsible for Education, Culture, Youth, Media and Sport (1999-2004). Commissioner Reding worked as a journalist for the Luxemburger Wort from 1978 to 1999. She was a member of the Luxembourg Parliament from 1979 to 1999 before becoming a Member of the European Parliament in 1989 for two successive terms.

Mady Delvaux-Stehres 

Minister of National Education and Vocational Training of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg

Having joined the LSAP (Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party) in 1974, Mady Delvaux-Stehres was initially active in the Socialist Women group. In 1989, she was appointed State Secretary for Health, Social Security, Youth and Sport. Following the 1994 elections, she became Minister for Communications, Transport and Social Security. In 1999, she was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies. During her term as Deputy, Mady Delvaux-Stehres was, within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a member of the Committee on Culture and the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe as well as one of its co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Turkey. Following the general election on 13 June 2004, Mady Delvaux-Stehres was appointed Minister of National Education and Vocational Training on 31 July 2004.

Ms Delvaux-Stehres' speech was delivered by Mr Raymond Straus, Conseiller de Gouvernement, Luxembourg Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.

Jerzy Buzek 

Member of the European Parliament

Jerzy Buzek was Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 until 2001. He is Professor of technical sciences and holds honorary doctorates of the Universities of Dortmund and Seoul.

As university lecturer of long standing at Opole, Gliwice and Częstochowa, he represented Poland at the International Energy Agency as well as being organiser and chairman of an international network of 19 institutions working on energy and environmental protection (1996). Mr Buzek is author of some 200 research papers and holds three patents in the fields of environmental protection, power and process engineering.

Jerzy Buzek was elected Member of the European Parliament on 13 June 2004. The Parliament's industry, research and energy (ITRE) committee recently named Jerzy Buzek as its rapporteur on the FP7 proposals.

Vasilis Maglaris 

Chairman, NREN Policy Committee – GÉANT Consortium

Vasilis Maglaris has been a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) since 1989 and, since October 2004, has served as the Chairman of the National Research & Education Networks Policy Committee (NREN PC).

He holds a degree in Engineering from NTUA (Athens, Greece, 1974) and a PhD from Columbia University (New York, USA, 1979). Prior to joining the faculty at NTUA, he held various industrial and academic positions in the USA, all in advanced electronic communications. Apart from teaching and performing research on Computer Networks, he was responsible for developing the NTUA Campus LAN and for the establishment of GRNET (the Greek NREN). He served as GRNET's Chairman from its inception (1995) until June 2004. Since 1994 he has served on the Board of the Greek National Regulatory Authority on Communications and Posts.