Professor Lena Barbara Kolarska-Bobi?ska is the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education. In order to take the appointment, she resigned as a Member of the European Parliament from Poland where she represented the Lublin region from the Civic Platform Party list. She is a graduate of the Sociology Department of the University of Warsaw, as well as a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University and the Business School of Carnegie Mellon University. She also holds a Doctorate and the title of Professor from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, where she was head of the Department of Economics and Politics until 1991. From 1991 to 1997 she was director of CBOS, Poland's largest public opinion research centre. From 1997 until July 2009, she has been the director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Poland, an independent, non-partisan public policy think tank, stepping down upon her election to the European Parliament. Kolarska-Bobi?ska has written over 300 books and articles. She has been a lecturer at universities in Poland and abroad. She often comments on political and social developments for Polish and international media. 

December 3rd, 1947 in Prague (Age 76)