The University of Athens named after Ioannis Kapodistrias and the Municipality of Town Delphi have launched a program to revitalize and promote the humanistic and cultural traditions that arose in the times of Antiquity, in Ancient Greece, and afterwards were propagated around the whole world.
The University of Athens named after Ioannis Kapodistrias and the Municipality of Town Delphi have launched a program to revitalize and promote the humanistic and cultural traditions that arose in the times of Antiquity, in Ancient Greece, and afterwards were propagated around the whole world.
The program established a special international award in four nominations:
- «Wisdom» - for the contribution of an individual in the humanitary and natural sciences;
- «Peace» - for the contribution to peace support;
- «Homo Hellenicus» - for the contribution to promotion of Greek (European) humanistic values in social and political activities;
- «Polis» - the city, whose past and present are marked by a significant contribution to the promotion and protection of humanistic ideals, based on the ideas of Hellenism.
The Organizing Committee for the award includes the administration of the University of Athens, the Mayor of Delphi, and prominent figures in science and culture of Greece.
The award ceremony is held in Delphi as a part of the University of Athens international scientific symposium on hellenistics.
As concerns Russian Federation, the founding committee appointed the award winners of 2009 Zhores Alferov, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Nobel Prize winner in physics (nomination: «Wisdom»), and St.Petersburg («Polis»).
Among the award winners, the following persons were also named:
- «Homo Hellenicus» - Scott Bolton, director of the Department for Space Research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA (United States), Jacqueline de ROMILLY, academician, member of the French Academy (France);
- «Wisdom» - Horst Schneider, Professor at the University of Saarbruecken (Germany), Deng Wei, Professor at Tsinghua University (China);
- «Peace» - Noam Chomsky, Professor of linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States).
A solemn award ceremony was held in Delphi, at the theatre «Frinikos» on July 18, 2009, with the participation of representatives of science and culture of Greece, the administration of Delphi, and the diplomatic corps. Yu.E. Kiseleva, Chairman of the Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture, represented St.Petersburg at the award ceremony «Polis» on behalf of the Governor of St.Petersburg.
Source: Committee for External Relations of St.Petersburg