Per-Edvin Persson is an Ecsite Honorary Fellow since 2013. Honorary fellows are nominated by the Ecsite Board for having gained outstanding merit by their activity and devotion to Ecsite or to the science engagement field.

Professor, Dr. Per-Edvin Persson, (b. 16.10.1949 Helsinki), 1975-1983 research scientist at the University of Helsinki (including a fellowship year in Canada 1977-78), 1983 – 87 Director of the Federation of Finnish Scientific Societies, 1987 – 91 Director of Science at Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre, and 1991 – 2013, Director of Heureka. He has written about 50 scientific publications, 200 popular articles, including numerous articles on science centres and museums. He has held/is holding several national and international positions of trust, including membership in the Finnish Research Council of Environmental Sciences 1983 – 88, Nordic Science Policy Council (Copenhagen) 1986 – 91, Governing Board of the Academy of Finland 1992 – 94, Chair of the Board of the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute 2012-14, Chair of the education association Svenska folkskolans vänner 2010-.

Professor Persson was President of the Nordic Science Centre Association 1987-1991, President of the European Science Centre network ECSITE (Brussels) 1997-1998 and President of the international Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), based in Washington, D.C., in 2004-2005. He was a member of the the ECSITE Board 1991-2001, and again in 2007-2013. He was on the ASTC Board in 1993-2007. He served as Chairman of the First Science Centre World Congress in Finland in 1996. He was on the Programme Committee of subsequent World Congresses (Calcutta, 1999, Canberra, 2002, Rio de Janeiro, 2005, Toronto, 2008, Cape Town 2011). He served as Chair of the ReDiscover Fund Advisory Board in the UK in 2002-2005. He was a member of the international evaluation group of La Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris in 2001 and the International Scientific Advisory Committee of the New China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing in 2006-2009. He is a member of the Kuratorium of the Deutsches Museum since 2002, of the Science Council of the AHHAA Science Centre in Tartu, Estonia since 1998, of the Science Advisory Board of the Swedish Museum of Technology since 2009, and of the Steering Group of the Norwegian Science Centre Programme 2011-14. He has visited over 500 science centres and museums in all seven continents.

Under his leadership, Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre developed into a science centre of international renown. Heureka is well-known for its innovative and highly interactive science exhibitions that have circulated in 25 countries in four continents and that have been seen by more than 22 million visitors during the period 1989-2012. – Professor Persson has received, inter alia, the Finnish State Prize of Information in 1987, the Oskar von Miller medal in gold from Deutsches Museum in 2002, the Medal of the City of Tartu in 2007 and the Medal of the City of Vantaa in 2009. He was given the ASTC Fellow Award for Outstanding Contribution in 2007 and was elected Honorary Member of ECSITE in 2013. He is Knight (1st grade) of the Order of the White Rose of Finland and Knight of the National Order of Merit (France). For more information, see www.peredvinpersson.fi.

In his retirement, Professor Persson (Pelle among friends), as one of the world’s leading experts on science centres and museums, provides worldwide consulting and coaching for science centres, science museums and non-profit cultural organisations, specialising in the following:

• CEO coaching and leadership development
• strategic planning and morphing
• corporate identity and core ideology development