Dr Heide Hackmann is Director of Future Africa and Strategic Advisor on Transdisciplinarity and Global Knowledge Networks at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
Dr Hackmann was the inaugural CEO of the International Science Council from 2018 to 2022, having previously been the Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU) since March 2015.
Before joining ICSU, Heide served eight years as Executive Director of the International Social Science Council (ISSC).
Heide holds a M.Phil in contemporary social theory from the University of Cambridge, UK, and a PhD in science and technology studies from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
She has worked as a science policy maker, researcher and consultant in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Before moving into the world of the international councils, Heide worked as Head of the Department of International Relations and Quality Assessment of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Her career in science policy dates back to the early 1990s when she worked at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa.
She is a former member and co-chair the UN’s 10-member group supporting the Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) on the Sustainable Development Goals, and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils.
Heide holds membership of several international advisory committees and boards:
The page was updated in May 2024.
