Steven Engelsman — Director, World Museum Vienna, Austria

Became Director of the World Museum Vienna (Weltmuseum Wien) in 2013 after more than 15 years leading the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. Trained in mathematics and history of science at Utrecht University (PhD 1982, on families of curves and the origins of partial differentiation), he taught mathematics at Utrecht before moving in 1979 to Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, as curator of physics. As chief-curator and deputy director from 1984, he helped lead the museum's reorganisation into the National Museum for the History of Science and Medicine (opened 1991), then became director of Leiden's National Museum of Ethnology in 1992 — one of the world's oldest ethnological museums, noted for its early Japanese and Indonesian collections.

A founding member of ASEMUS, chairman 2003-2005, he created the Virtual Collection of Asian Masterpieces (VCM) during his tenure, linking museums with Asian collections across 26 countries (16 European, 10 Asian), led by Leiden's National Museum of Ethnology (Europe) and the National Museum of Korea (Asia). His view: ASEMUS "opened up a world of new friendships and partnerships that boost our museums' vitality."