David Nordfors CV

David A. Nordfors, Ph.D.
This page updated 24 Dec 2009

Present Positions:

2009- : Co-founder, Executive Director, VINNOVA-Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism , Stanford University - a part of the H-STAR institute.

2005- : Senior Research Scholar, H-STAR – The Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute, Stanford University.

2009- : Adjunct Professor, Samy Ofer School of Communication , IDC Herzliya

2009- : Visiting Professor, Journalism and Mass Media, School of Government, Social Sciences and Humanities, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico

2001- : Program Director, VINNOVA (leave of absence as from 2005)

Present Appointments:

2009- : Chair of the Advisory Board, Newscollective (a startup company)

2009- : Advisor to the Executive Director of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

2009- : Member of the Futures Committe of TheTech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, CA, USA.

2008- : Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Journalism

2008- : Member of the Advisory Board, Lifeboat Foundation

2004- : Founding Publisher, Innovation Journalism, here

Academic Degrees:

1990: Ph.D. in molecular quantum physics, Dept. of Physics and Dept. of Quantum Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden. Selected by Prof. Kai Siegbahn (Nobel Prize Physics 1981). Supervisors: Prof Nils Mårtensson and Prof Hans Ågren.

1984: B.Sc. in applied nuclear physics, Dept. of Physics, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Former Employments:

2005-2008 : Founder and Director, Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford University.

2001-2008 : Special Advisor to the Director General VINNOVA – Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems

2000-2001: CEO, Baz Associates AB. Consulting Company between Sweden and Israel.

1998-2007: Nordfors Creative AB - private consulting company

1995-1999: Director of Research Funding, KK-Stiftelsen (The Knowledge Foundation), the second largest Public Research Foundation in Sweden. Designed and initiated the research funding programs of the foundation. http://www.kks.se

1995-1996: Director of Communication, KK-stiftelsen (The Knowledge Foundation).

1996-1999: Founding Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, “IT och Lärande” (“IT and Learning”) bi-weekly newsletter, +100 000 readers, 75% penetration of target group.

1998-1999: Columnist, Datateknik. Swedish bi-weekly computer magazine, 50 000 readers. (Click for columns for 1998/99 )

1993-1995: Science Editor of Datateknik. Initiated the science section of the magazine.

1991-1993: Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Dept of Theoretical Chemistry, University of Heidelberg, Germany. Research grant from NFR (Swedish Natural Research Council)

1990-1991: Researcher, Dept of Quantum Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden.

1990: Journalist, Datateknik

1984-1990: Post-graduate researcher, Electron Spectroscopy group at dept of Physics and dept. of Quantum Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden. Recruited by Prof. Kai Siegbahn, Nobel Prize in Physics 1982 for Spectroscopy with Electrons.

1982: First Curator, Upplands Nation, Uppsala. CEO of student association with +2000 members, fraternity house, library, apartment complex, restaurants etc.

Former Appointments:

2008: Invited Member of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Media. (list of members here) (became Council of 'Future of Journalism' in 2009)

2004-2008 : Co-founding Director, SIBED Directorate, running SIBED - Sweden-Israel Testbed Program for IT Applications for VINNOVA in Sweden and Matimop + Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Israel.

2002-2008 : Board member, Sweden Israel Chamber of Commerce

2003-2007 : Special Advisor EMEA to the Executive Committee of The Competitive Institute (TCI).

2001-2005 : Swedish manager of the MOU between the Government of Sweden and the Government of the State of Israel on co-operation in the field of industrial research and development, through VINNOVA (leave of abscence as of 2005)

2004 :Visiting Scholar, SCIL – Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University.

2000-2004: Musical Advisor, production of Anders Widmark’s “Hymn” (Sonet 982 226-1, CD released 2004)

2002 : Faculty member, Technion Institute for Management

2000-2002: Advisory board member, Senseboard Technologies AB, Sweden

2000-2002: Associated Partner, Momentor AB Venture Catalyst.

1999-2000: Editor, ISTF Documentation Series, Internet Societal Task Force - a project hosted by The Internet Society. Appointed by Chairman Vint Cerf.

2000: Participant in the US State Dept International Visitors Program "Electronic Commerce and the US Economy"

Work Permits / Citizenship

European Union
Swedish/EU Citizen. Entitled to work in all of European Union.

United States of America
US Green Card. ('alien of extraordinary capability', Sec 203(b)(1)(A))

Some Results

Construction of Funding Programs/Public innovation policy initiatives:

VINNOVA – Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems

2003- : Building and directing “Innovation Journalism”. International fellowship programme for supporting innovation journalism as a community and discipline. Based at Stanford University as from 2004. Stanford employment as Senior Research Scholar – Innovation Journalism in Jan 2005, officially joining VINNOVA and Stanford in developing Innovation Journalism.

2001- : Built up and co-directing “SIBED – Sweden-Israel Testbed Programme for IT applications. Bi-national R&D programme, in co-operation with Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Israel. (Euro 4 Million for an initial three year period)

KK-Stiftelsen (the Knowledge Foundation)

Designed and built up three funding programs and funded +100 quality assured projects (85% scientifically peer reviewed)
for approx 45 000 000 USD.
details on research funding activities

1999-2000: Built up and directed Expert Network Fellowships. International fellowship programme for supporting expert network operators as a community. The Swedish national expert network ExpertSvar was created within the programme.

1995-1998: Built up and directed “Research Projects”. Support to research projects at regional universities in co-operation with industry. Peer-reviewed. Support typically up to Euro 250.000.

1996-1998: Built up and directed “Research Profiles”. Support to build-ups of research environments at regional universities in co-operation with industry. Evaluations in co-operation with NSF (USA). Support typically Euro 2-4 Million over six years.

1998: Built-up initial stages of “Research Platforms”. Support to creation of basic research capabilities at regional universities. Mentor-based quality control. Support typically Euro 0.5-1.5 Million over three years.

Projects

2005-2008 : Project Leader of the Innovation Journalism initiative at SCIL, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University. (became the VINNOVA-Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism in 2009. See above)

1996-1999: Initiator and Project Leader project "A network of Multi-Cultural Technological Incubators in Sweden". Supported by The National Board for Integration, The Ministry of Industry, the Blekinge Institute of Technology, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Was supported by several bills in the parliament.

Concepts

2003: Coined the concept of "Innovation Journalism"

2006: Coined the concepts of "Innovation Communication System" and "Attention Work"

Examples of conferences, seminars, hearings, delegations:

2009: Invited Speaker, The 2nd Israeli Science Communications Conference, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem Dec 24 2009.

2009: Invited participant, The World Economic Forum Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai Nov 20-22. Member of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Journalism.

2009: Invited participant, NPR Digital Think In, a selected group of 60 thought leaders invited by NPR President Vivian Schiller to advise on the future of NPR (NPR release here), San Francisco, USA Oct 9.

2009: Invited participant, World Economic Forum Media, Entertainment and Information (MEI) Industry Strategy Meeting, New York, USA, Oct 1.

2009: Keynote Speaker, The First Nordic Conference on Innovation Journalism, University of Helsinki, Finland, Sep 25

2009: Participant in the World Economic Forum "Summer Davos" Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian China, Sep 10-12: Facilitator of the workshop on Collaborative Innovation, Moderator of the session on The Photonic Revolution, Discussion Leader of the CEO Insight Group on Innovation.

2009: Keynote Speaker, "Innovation at Creative Industries" conference in Berlin, organized by the senate of Berlin, Germany. June 29.

2009: Invited Speaker, "Organizing Transatlantic Innovation" at Helsinki City Hall, Finland, organized by the Technopolicy Network and the US National Academy of Science. June 26.

2009: Invited speaker, Seminar on Innovation Journalism, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), hosted by CBS and DASTI - Danish Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation. June 25.

2009: Invited Workshop Chair and Keynote Speaker, "Constructive Innovation Journalism" workshop, Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, Bonn, Germany, June 3-5.

2009: Conference Chair, IJ-6 The Sixth Conference on Innovation Journalism, Stanford University May 18-20

2009: Invited Speaker, European Journalism Centre conference "Interfacing Innovation", Brussels April19-22.

2009: Invited Plenary Speaker, European Commission conference on 'Creativity and Innovation – Best practice from EU Programmes', BRUSSELS, 2-3 March 2009

2008: Keynote Speaker, Seminar on Innovation Journalism, Y Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico

2008: Keynote Speaker, Seminar on Innovation Journalism, Camara de Disputados, Congreso De La Union (Chamber of Deputies, Mexican Parliament), Mexico

2008: One of the 'innovation 100' thought leaders in the World Economic Forum's Innovation 100 Summit, Stanford University, CA, US.

2008: Conference Chair,IJ-5 - The Fifth Conference on Innovation Journalism, Stanford University, CA, US

2008: Opening speaker at the Knowledge4Innovation meeting in the European Parliament, Brussels.

2008: Speaker at IAMCR global conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Presented conference paper on Innovation Journalism

2008: Keynote Speaker, BASF ComTalks (global conferece for all BASF communication managers), Ludwigshafen, Germany

2007: Keynote Speaker, Globes Israel Business Conference 2008, Tel Aviv Israel; Interview in Globes (largest business daily in Israel)

2007: Keynote Speaker, Deutsche Welle World seminar on Innovation Journalism, Bonn, Germany.

2007: Keynote Speaker, "Knitting the Innovation Network", Seminar in Bilbao, Basque region, Spain, organized by Cluster Comonicimiento , and the Telefonica Foundation. (interview by EITB Basque national broadcast )

2007: Invited Speaker, "Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford 2007", Saïd Business School, Oxford University, UK

2007: Invited Speaker, Clustering07 - The Second International Clustering Conference, Istanbul, Turkey

2007: Session Chair / Speaker, "The Innovation Communication System", Clusters 2007 - The 10th Global Conference of TCI, The Competitiveness Institute, in Portland, OR, US.

2007: Invited speaker, eContent Summit 2007 in Brijuni, Croatia. Summit organized by the Internet Institute in Croatia, the e-Croatia national agency and the Business Institute

2007: Keynote speaker, "Innovation Journalism - Detecting Weak Signals" in Maastricht, Netherlands, conference organized by EJC - the European Journalism Center

2007: Keynote speaker, "Stanford po Stanford", regional European Conference on Innovation Journalism in Slovenia. (see also the talk by the EU Commissioner for Science and Research at the conference, commenting on the innovation journalism concept)

2007: Chair & Publisher of proceedings, The Fourth Conference on Innovation Journalism, Stanford University

2007: Invited speaker, First Global Innovation Summit, New Delhi, India; organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US National Academy of Sciences. (Interview in ADTV Profit morning TV show ) (story by Indo Asian News Service )

2006: Keynote speaker, First Slovenian workshop on Innovation Journalism (at the University of Ljubljana). (Interview in Slovenian TV )

2006: Speaker, Workshop Chair, Innovation Journalism session, "Clusters 2006", the TCI 9th Global Conference, in Lyon.

2006: Invited speaker, Picnic 06 Conference in Amsterdam, Workshop on Innovation Journalism arranged by the European Journalism Center.

2006: Conference co-chair. Editor of proceedings, The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, Stanford University, Apr 5-7 2006. 88 speakers, 200 participants.

2005: Organizer/Chairman/Producer, Roundtable on "The Future of Innovation Journalism", with Vint Cerf, Whit Diffie and Journalism professionals, available on DVD and Google Video

2005: Chairman, VINNBAY Roundtable on Commercialization of Academic Research. Stanford University, May 20 2005.

2005: Invited Speaker, eTampere Conference 2005, Tampere Finland, May 17 2005

2005: Conference co-chair. Editor of proceedings, The Second Conference on Innovation Journalism, Stanford University, Apr 4-6 2005. 57 speakers and panellists from five countries, 115 registered participants.

2004: Guest Lecturer, Technology and Politics (Syllabus STS 176, Prof. Patrick Windham) - Stanford Program in Science, Technology and Society. Nov 15 2004.

2004: Organizer, AquaNano 2004, Swedish-Israeli Workshop on Nano Science for Water Applications. Oct 24-29 2004. Co-organized by the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities, VINNOVA and KTH - the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

2004: Innovation Journalism Panel Chair & Moderator, Northern California Science Writers workshop “Shifting Gears: New Directions In Science Writing”. Oct 16 2004.

2004: Speaker, TCI 7^th Global Conference, Ottawa – Building Innovative Clusters for Competitive Advantage, Sep 27 – Oct 1 2004.

2004: Invited Speaker, OECD/Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China,“High-level Seminar on Intellectual Property Rights Issues Related to Public Research Institutions”, Beijing Apr 22-23 2004.

2004: Conference Chair, “The First Conference on Innovation Journalism” Wallenberg Hall, Stanford University, Apr 14-16 2004.

2003: Invited Speaker,Cluster Conference, Gdansk Institute for Market Economics, Nov 17 2003.

2003: Member of the organizing committee, the “TCI 6th Global Conference – Innovative Clusters – A New Challenge”, (web: http://www.tciconference.org )Gothenburg, Sweden. 300 participants from 50 countries.

2002: co-arranger and official host of The Scott M. Black TIM Senior Management Program (SMP) VI International Benchmarking Trip, headed by Prof. Lester Thurow (MIT), Chairman Technion Institute on Management, Tel Aviv, Israel.

2000: co-arranger and official host of the delegation to Israel of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

1994: Initiated, co-organised and chaired the first symposium in the Swedish parliament on information technology and the Internet.