Prof. Laurens Jan Brinkhorst currently serves as Professor in International and European Law and Governance at the University of Leiden. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Salzburg Global Seminar, originally an American institution of higher learning located in Austria. He is Senior Adviser to the European Space Agency and is Coordinator of the European Commission for a Trans-European Network.

Brinkhorst has had a long political, European and academic career. He was recently Minister of Economic Affairs and Minister of Agriculture. He was also a member of the Netherlands and European Parliaments. He previously served as Deputy Minister of European Affairs. With the European Union he served as EU Ambassador to Japan and was subsequently Director General for Environmental and Nuclear Safety. In academia he has held chairs at Groningen, Leiden and Tilburg Universities.