Ivan M. Havel
Ivan M. Havel graduated in 1966 from Czech Technical University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. During 1969-71 he attended the University of California at Berkeley, earning his Ph.D. in Computer Science. For several years he worked as a research scientist with the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Before the communist regime collapsed in late 1989, besides his semiofficial scientific work, he hosted discussion groups in his apartment in Prague, cooperated with samizdat editions and was harassed and briefly detained by the communist police on various occasions. From November 1989 till June 1990 he was engaged in political work as a member of the Council of the Civic Forum Coordination Center (Civic Forum was the leading movement during the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia). Presently he is the director of the Center for Theoretical Study, an international cross-disciplinary institution affiliated with Charles University and the Academy of Sciences in Prague. As a docent (associate professor) at Charles University, he also has teaching responsibilities at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. Since 1990 he is the editor-in-chief of Czechoslovak scientific journal Vesmír (The Universe). He is a member of Academia Europea and several other professional societies and serves on boards of various academic institutions and cultural foundations.
Education and Degrees 1961–1966 Czech Technical University, Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering Ing. (Automation and Computers, 1966) 1969–1971 University of California, Berkeley, USA, Department of Computer Science M.S. (1970) Ph.D.(Theoretical Computer Science, 1971) 1974 CSc.(Technical Cybernetics), Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague 1992 Docent (Associate Professor), Charles University, Prague Major Scientific Interests Theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, philosophy of mind, methodology of science.
Professional Positions 1990 – present: Director, Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University, Prague 1990 – present: Teaching position, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics, Charles University, Prague 1990 Council Member, Civic Forum Coordination Centre, Prague 1981-1990: Computer Programmer, Meta, Prague 1980 Programmer – Analyst, Terplan, Prague 1972-1979 Research scientist, Institute of Information Theory and Automation, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague 1966-1969 Research worker, Institute of Automation and Computing Techniques, Prague
