On April 17 died Professor Jose Mariano Gago, a close collaborator and friend of UNESCO, the former Minister in charge of Science and Technology, Information Society and Higher Education of Portugal.

Professor José Mariano Gago was an experimental high energy physicist and a Professor at IST (Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon). He graduated at IST and obtained a PhD in Physics at École Polytechnique and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris. He worked as a researcher at the European Organisation for Nuclear Physics (CERN), Geneva, and in Portugal’s Laboratory for Particle Physics (LIP) that he created and chaired. He has also created and chaired a think-tank for forward-looking studies, Instituto de Prospectiva.

Former Minister of Portugal (1995-2002 and 2005-2011), he launched the Ciência Viva movement to promote S&T culture and S&T in society. He was responsible for the reform of Higher Education and for the policies leading to the fast development of Science and Technology in Portugal. As Portuguese EU presidency (2000), he prepared, along with the European Commission, the Lisbon Strategy for the European Research Area and for the Information Society in Europe. He chaired the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) and campaigned for the creation of the European Research Council, was the first President of the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) in Geneva, a member of the Board of INSERM (France), a policy advisor to the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO), a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cyprus Institute, and a member of the Governing Board of Euroscience. He was a member of the Academia Europaea and was elected Honorary Member of the European Physical Society.

In UNESCO Professor Gago was among the group of external experts who proposed creation of the International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP), established in 2005. He represented Portugal at the Council of SESAME (Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle-East), an intergovernmental organization formed under UNESCO auspices. He created a concept of a future UNESCO Category 2 Centre in the basic sciences in Lisbon, on the basis of his new initiative for the advanced training of scientists from developing countries in Portugal, Ciência Global. For years Professor Gago was collaborating with the UNESCO science policy programme, supporting initiatives like STIGAP and GOSPIN, organizing summer schools for foreign graduate students from CPLP countries, and helping UNESCO in establishing a big project on STI development in Angola. In January 2015 Professor Gago moderated a Panel Discussion on “Science Policy for Development”<a name="_GoBack"></a> during the Opening Ceremony of the International Year of Light (see the picture enclosed), as well as met with the Executive Board at the Information Meeting organized by the Chair of the Board, HE Ambassador Amr of Egypt, on January 20th. This was his last official appearance in UNESCO.

Professor Gago was a truly exceptional scientist, a visionary politician, a widely respected colleague, a superb mentor and friend. His engaging and charming personality will stay with all who knew him. He will be sadly missed.

Opening Ceremony of the International Year of Light, at which Professor Gago was moderating a Panel Discussion on “Science Policy for Development”, January 19, 2015, in Room I, UNESCO Headquarters