Professor Arnold Burgen, the founder and first president of Academia Europaea celebrates his 100th birthday#
The membership of the Academia Europaea wish to congratulate our founder and first President, Professor Arnold Burgen MAE FRS (AE Praesidis Perpetui h.c) on his centenary birthday.
In 1987-1988 Sir Arnold, as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society
was the driving force in the creation of the Academia Europaea, alongside a number of other like-minded senior European scholars and associated institutions, for example the Royal Society of London, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Academie des Sciences, the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and the Leopoldina. Read the history of the Academia Europaea.
Professor Burgen worked to establish the Academia Europaea and academy covering all the Sciences, Humanities and Social and Societal Sciences. He established our journal The European Review and was Editor-in-Chief for many years. He instigated a number of prize schemes, including our major award the Erasmus Medal. He also served a chair for the Board of trustees before our re-registration (pre-2010).
He gave a short presentation at our 30th anniversary event at the Royal Society, where he was photographed with several of our later Presidents.
We are hoping to organise a one-day celebratory high-level scientific event in Cambridge for late in the year, to mark this milestone.
We offer Sir Arnold and his wife the former eminent crystallographer Olga Kennard (also an AE member in her own right) our thanks and congratulations and our best wishes for continuing good health.
