Martin Höpner is senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in Cologne where he heads a research group on ‘European liberalization policy’. His research interests are located in the areas of comparative political economy, of Europeanisation, of industrial relations, and of corporate governance. He will be a guest of the research group ‘Position formation in the EU Commission’ for three months in spring 2012.

Åse Gornitzka is research professor at ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo. Her research focuses on the transformation of the European political order in the area of education and research policy, the dynamics of European level governance sites, the role of expertise in EU policy making and the domestic impact of the EU’s soft modes of governance. Åse Gornitzka was a guest of the research group for one month in autumn 2011.

John Peterson, professor for international relations at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, was a guest of the research group from January to February 2011. His main fields of academic interests are the European Commission, EU trade policy, US-European relations and EU enlargement. During his stay at the WZB, John Peterson worked on a multiannual collaborative research project ‘The European Commission in Question’ , of which he is the principal investigator together with Hussein Kassim. The project is funded by the EU and the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and has spawned the largest-ever independent attitudinal survey of Commission officials.

Waltraud Schelkle is senior lecturer in political economy at the European Institute London School of Economics (LSE) and adjunct professor at the economics department of the Free University of Berlin. Funded by a T.H. Marshall Fellowship she was guest of the research group from September to November 2010. Her research interests lie in the political economy of European integration, in particular fiscal governance and the impact on welfare systems in member states. Her research at the WZB concerned the social policy dimension of regulatory crisis management in the EU and the US.

Deborah Mabbett is professor of public policy at Birbeck College, University of London. She was a guest of the research group in September and October 2010, funded by a T.H. Marshall Fellowship. Her research interests comprise the ‘regulatory state’ in social policy and the political economy of pensions and insurance. At the WZB she worked together with Waltraud Schelkle on a project which analysed the impact of regulatory crisis management on social policy in the EU and the US.

Costanza Hermanin, doctoral student at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, was a guest of the research group from October 2008 to January 2009. She is interested in EU policies and institutions, and more specifically immigration policy and aspects related to the social inclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities in Western Europe. During her visit at the WZB she conducted field work for her Ph.D. thesis which compares the domestic implementation of the European Union Racial Equality Directive in France, Germany and Italy.