Jose Mariano Gago

José Mariano Gago is an experimental high energy physicist and a Professor of Physics of at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Lisbon, Portugal. He graduated as an electrical engineer from the Technical University of Lisbon and obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the École Polytechnique in Paris. He worked for many years as a researcher at the European Organisation for Nuclear Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland and in Portugal's Laboratory for Particle Physics (LIP), which he chaired. Gago is a member of the CERN Council. He chaired the High Level Group on Human Resources for Science and Technology in Europe. As Minister of Science and Technology (S&T) during 1995-2002, Gago was responsible for science and technology and for information society policies. He launched the Ciencia Viva movement to promote S&T culture and S&T in society. During the Portuguese EU presidency (2000), he prepared, along with the European Commission, the Lisbon Strategy for the European Research Area an