Wiebe E. Bijker is Professor of Technology and Society at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, and professor emeritus at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. (https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/wiebe.bijker). He is chairman of the evaluation committee of the Research Programme of the Dutch National Science Agenda. Bijker is founding co-editor of the monograph series “Inside Technology” of MIT Press and he was Chair of NWO-WOTRO, the Dutch research council for development research, and Board member of the Rathenau Institute, the Dutch agency for technology assessment.
Bijker was trained in physics and earned his PhD on the social construction of technology. His research focuses on the relations between technology, society, and science. Since the 1990’s, especially political and normative issues have been central in his research. These were studied in a variety of empirical domains: nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, ICT, gender and technology, public health policies, science & technology for developing nations, sustainable agriculture, public participation experiments, and governance and democracy. One relevant publication is: W.E. Bijker, R. Bal, R. Hendriks, The Paradox of Scientific Authority: the role of scientific advice in democracies, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2009.
Wiebe Bijker received the J.D Bernal Award in 2006 and the Leonardo da Vinci medal in 2012.