Programme

Edward Crawley is the President of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech). He received an S.B. and an S.M. in aeronautics and astronautics and an Sc.D. in aerospace structures (1981), all from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His recent research has focused on the architecture, design, and decision support in complex technical systems. He is currently working with the NASA to design human exploration and earth observing systems. Professor Crawley has served as chairman of the NASA Technology and Commercialization Advisory Committee, as a member of the NASA Advisory Committee and the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Space Station Redesign. From 2003 to 2006, he was the Executive Director of the Cambridge-MIT Institute, a joint venture with Cambridge University; the institute’s mission was to understand and generalize how universities can act effectively as engines of innovation and economic growth. Previously, from 1996 to 2003, he was head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORB). He is founder of ACX, a product development and manufacturing firm; BioScale that develops biomolecular detectors; Dataxu, a company in internet advertising matching; Ekotrope that supplies energy portfolio analysis to businesses and consumers. Professor Crawley has won numerous teaching awards, and in 1992, he was elected a member of the first class of MacVicar Faculty Fellows at MIT. He was awarded the NASA Public Service Medal. He has served as founding co-director of an international collaboration on the reform of engineering education. For his work in CDIO, he received the 2011 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering Education from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Professor Crawley is a Fellow of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and Royal Aeronautical Society (UK) and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), and the National Academy of Engineering (US). He is the author of numerous papers. Prof. Crawley (who is conversant in Russian) has spent time as a visitor at the Moscow Aviation Institute, as well as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, and Cambridge University.

Dr. Nordlund has more than 15 years of experience in leading industrial and academic organizations. In his different roles in industry, he has lead the development of many new products, managed global research and development organizations with large budgets and also designed and coordinated industry/university and industry/government collaboration programs. In his academic leadership roles he has managed innovative educational programs, designed new doctoral programs, developed research policy at the EU level and facilitated the renewal of existing academic programs. While in industry, Dr. Nordlund has provided important contributions to the development of industry/university partnerships, as well as research policy formation and execution. In 2004 he served as Chair of the Strategic Panel in Applied Engineering Science for the EU’s New and Emerging Science and Technology Program (NEST). In 2005 he served on the EU Commission’s High Level Expert Group (HLEG) that provided the policy document for the EU’s frontier research initiative, which lead to the formation of the European Research Council (ERC). He is currently serving on the Advisory Board of the Mechanical Engineering Program at Chalmers University of Technology and is appointed as Adjunct Associate Professor in Product Development.