Peter Wittenburg had an education as electrical engineer participating in early computer science courses, was leading the technology and methodology group at a Max-Planck-Institute working on brain research, was responsible for the development of three international and European data infrastructures, advisor of the EC in several high-level groups on data, co-authored a few key documents of the EC on data. He received a Dr. hc degree for his work on data harmonisation and infrastructures, was co-founder of the global RDA initiative and co-founded and co-chairs the FDO Forum