LUDGER KÜHNHARDT (Münster, 1958) is a German political scientist. Since 1997 he has been Director at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), which he helped to found, and he has also been Professor of Political Science at Bonn University. Kühnhardt regularly lectures at the Catholic University of Milan (since 1997), at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (since 2002) and at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta (since 2007). He was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna (1993) and a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. (2002 and 2011). Kühnhardt has intensive political and academic consulting experience, including for the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and for the President of the European Parliament. In 2004 he was awarded the European Science Prize of the European Cultural Foundation.