Jerzy Buzek became the first eastern European president of the European Parliament in a vote yesterday. He also becomes the first president to have a strong and still-active scientific background. A PhD chemical engineer, he worked for many years at the Chemical Engineering Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice, southern Poland. He generated a strong bibliography and has three patents, in the area of energy. He spent a year at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1972, but declined the offer of a grant to stay longer, preferring to return to Poland.

After the fall of communism he has concerned himself with environmental energy issues, serving on different national and international commissions.

He became prime minister of Poland from 1997 until 2001, then returned to academia before becoming an Member of the European Parliament in 2004. There he became an active member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and was rapporteur for the multi-billion-euro Framework 7 Research Programme legislation.

The presidency of the European Parliament is more ceremonial than powerful, but Buzek will at least throw a positive light on the deliberations of the Framework 8 Research Programme which must be approved during this legisalture.

Buzek’s wife is a chemist and his daughter a famous actress – she costarred with Roman Polanski in Andrzej Wajdas’ 2002 film Revenge.

Conservative MEP Herbert Reul of Germany is expected to be elected chair of the new ITRE parliamentary committee tomorrow.