Peter Kowalski is currently the director general for Scientific Research and International Relations, Division of Science, at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF).

From 1974 to 1976 he was the director of the Austrian Institute for Research on Vocational Training (ÖIBF). Between 1976 and 2005, he held several positions at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor in the field of research and technology. Kowalski is a member of the Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development and a member of the advisory board of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). In 2003 he was granted an honorary professorship at the University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology (UMIT) in Tyrol, Austria.

Kowalski holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Vienna and received his postgraduate education at the Department of Sociology of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna. Since 1993 he has also been certified as a psychotherapist.

• From Brain Drain to Brain Gain (April 19, 2006)