David Nordfors CV

David A. Nordfors, Ph.D.
This page updated 12 Jun 2008

Present Positions:

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

2005- : Senior Research Scholar, SCIL – Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University.

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

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

Present Appointments:

2008- : Invited Member of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Media.

2004- : Founding Publisher & Editor, Innovation Journalism, http://www.innovationjournalism.org

2004- : Director, SIBED Directorate (SIBED - Sweden-Israel Testbed Program for IT Applications ).

2002- : Board member, Sweden Israel Chamber of Commerce

2002- : Faculty member, Technion Institute for Management

2001- : 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.

Academic degrees:

1990: Ph.D. in molecular quantum physics, Dept. of Physics and Dept. of Quantum Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden

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

Former Employments:

2000-2001: CEO, Baz Associates/Ventures AB. Consulting Company with offices in Stockholm, Sweden and Tel Aviv, 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. Head of student association with +2000 members, fraternity house, library, apartment complex, restaurants etc.

Former Appointments:

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

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)

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. 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. Led to the creation of the Swedish national expert network ExpertSvar.

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- : Project Leader of the Innovation Journalism initiative at SCIL, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University.

2004- : Member of the founding team of VINNBAY, the VINNOVA Bay Area Initiative, increasing the cooperation between Stanford U and Sweden for the purpose of strengthening commercialization of academic research in Sweden and Swedish innovation systems. Based at Stanford University, CA, USA.

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.

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:

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.

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.