to the opening session of the 24th annual

conference“Northern Seas - the European Dimension”

September, 2012Bergen 1740. courtesy of University of Bergen

Welcome from:

The President of the Academia Europaea: Professor Lars Walløe MAE, and

The Rector of the University of Bergen: Professor Sigmund Grønmo MAE

The Council of the Academia Europaea are pleased to award an Erasmus Medal to two internationally renowned Neuroscientists

Tomas Hökfelt MAE (Stockholm)

Geoffrey Burnstock MAE (London)

and

Medal and lecture sponsored by:

Geoffrey Burnstock MAE (UCLondon)

Laudation by Professor Alexej Verkhratsky MAE – Chair of the Section: Physiology and Medicine

Best known for his seminal discovery and definition of P2purinergic receptors, their signaling pathways and functional relevance.

President of the Autonomic Neuroscience Centre, University College Medical School, UK. Professor and Chairman of Zoology, Melbourne University (1964), Head of Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at UCL (1975) and Director of the Autonomic Neuroscience Institute (1997). Elected to the Australian Academy of Sciences (1971), Royal Society (1986), Academy of Medical Sciences (1998) and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (1999) and Physicians (2000) and awarded the Royal Society Gold Medal (2000), the Copernicus Gold Medal (Ferrara) in 2009, the 2010 Gaddum Memorial Award and the IUPS Paton Lecture 2013. He has been given Honorary Degrees in the Universities of Antwerp, Frankfurt and Leipzig.

Tomas Hökfelt MAE (Stockholm)

Laudation by Professor Balázs GULYÁS MAE – Member of the Council of the Academia Europaea

work has focused on the role of neuropeptides in the central and peripheral nervous system, including substance P, galanin and NPY, three peptides that have been discovered by Swedish scientists/at Karolinska Institutet. These peptides may be involved in numerous functions as well as in various diseases, for example pain and depression.

Professor of Histology and Cell Biology Karolinska Institutet , Vice chair, Dept Neurosci, KI, Fogarty Scholar, NIH, Guest Professor, Collège de France, Paris, Adjunct Professor, Scripps Res Inst (La Jolla).

Doctor h. c. Univ Tampere, Copenhagen, Ferrara, Victor-Ségalen-Bordeaux II, Austral Univ (Buenos Aires). Hon Director 4th Military Med Univ (Xian), Hon Prof, Beijing Med Univ. Awards: Hilda and Alfred Eriksson´s Prize (Swedish Royal Acad Sci; together with K. Fuxe), Anders Jahre´s Prize Young scientists (Oslo) (with S. Olsnes), …….. Retzius Medal (Stockholm), Grand Medaille, Acad Sci (Paris).

The Burgen Scholarships

Established in honour of the founding President of the

Academia Europaea - Arnold Burgen and awarded on the recommendation of AE members in the host country of each annual conference.

The awards are meant to recognise emerging talents in young scholars from all disciplines and of any nationality, who are working in the host country.

Award recipients participate in the conference.

Sponsored by Cambridge University Press

Maja ELSTAD – PHYSIOLOGY & MEDICINE: Cardiovascular control – University of Oslobackground in mathematics and natural sciences before medical studies at the University of Oslo. After 18 months obligatory internship, she returned to the University of Oslo for her PhD studies with a grant from the Norwegian Health Association. She defended her PhD thesis on cardiac stroke volume variations in December 2009. She spent a year as a visiting postdoc in Professor Marianne Thoresen’s group in Bristol, UK.

Janne GRØNLI - Neurophysiology: Sleep Disorders - University of Bergenmasters in chemistry at The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences; PhD in neurophysiology at The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and postdoctoral work in biological and medical psychology at The Faculty of Psychology, all at University of Bergen. Editor of the Norwegian Journal ‘SØVN’ and hold the position as Center Coordinator at the Norwegian Competence Center for Sleep Disorders at Haukeland University Hospital.

Bjarte HANNISDAL – EARTH SCIENCES: Geobiology – University of BergenHe obtained his Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2006.

Bjarte investigates the interactions between geological and biological systems on different spatial and temporal scales. In particular, he works on methods for quantitatively characterizing such interactions in the deep past.

Cathrine HOLST - SOCIAL SCIENCE/PHILOSOPHY: Gender Studies - University of OsloPhD at the University of Bergen in 2005. Currently Senior Researcher, ARENA – Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, and previously Postdoctor at Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo (2008-2012), and Associate Professor in Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen (2005-2008). She has been Visiting Fellow at Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (2012) and Visiting Scholar at Freie Universität, Institut für Philosophie, Berlin (2003) and at New School for Social Research, Graduate Faculty, New York (2001).

Hilde L. JÅSTAD – HISTORY: – Demography in late 19th and early 20th centuries – University of TromsøPh.D in History from the University of Tromsø, Norway in 2011. Her doctoral thesis was entitled “Northern Co-residence across Generations in Northernmost Norway during the Late Nineteenth Century”. Her Ph.D fellowship was part of the international Boreas project, which was the first circumpolar initiative in the humanities with innovative collaboration between Europe, the US, Canada and Russia. During her doctoral studies she received a Fulbright stipend, enabling her to stay as a visiting scholar at the Minnesota Population Center in 2009. In 2004 she was awarded with Åse Hiorth Lervik’s prize for best Master thesis with a gender perspective written at the University of Tromsø. The strength of her research is the combination of complex statistical analysis with qualitative historical source criticism.

Øyvind JENSEN - THEORETICAL NUCLEAR PHYSICS: Computational challenges – Kjeller, Norwaymatriculated at the University of Bergen in 1999. After two years of study at the Faculty of Humanities he switched to the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences to study physics. Jensen focused on computational challenges in theoretical nuclear physics and defended his PhD thesis “Spectroscopic factors with Coupled Cluster, connecting ab initio nuclear structure to reactions” in 2011.

Christian JØRGENSEN – EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY: Fish evolution – University of Bergenstudied biology and philosophy at Bergen. For his Master’s Degree he investigated physiology and diving development in harbour seal pups, which involved living three months on an unpopulated island at Spitsbergen, 78°N. Having realized that field work is nothing less than fantastic when single but more problematic in combination with family life, he turned to theoretical work, which requires only pen and paper or at most a computer, for his PhD. He developed life history models for the Atlantic cod to study how industrial fishing causes contemporary evolution of life history traits.

Reidar MALIKS - POLITICAL THEORY: Kant - University of OsloPostdoctoral Research Fellow at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Prior to Oslo he was a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford (2009-11), a Lecturer at Harvard University (2008-9), and a Preceptor at Columbia University (2005-8). Reidar was awarded a Ph.D. in political theory at Columbia University in 2008. He received an MA in political science at the New School for Social Research, in 2001, and a Cand. Philol. in philosophy at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in 1999. Reidar has twice received the Derek Bok Certificate of Distinction in Teaching at Harvard University.

Lauren A. ROGERS – ECOLOGY: Fish populations – University of OsloLauren is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) at the University of Oslo. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Earth Systems Science from Stanford University and a doctoral degree in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington. Originally from Seattle, USA, Lauren visited Norway and CEES in 2009 on a research fellowship sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and the Research Council of Norway. She returned in 2011 to pursue postdoctoral research at the same institute.

Yasser ROUDI - Statistical Physics: Neural networks - Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, NTNU, in Trondheim BSc in Physics from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, in 2001 and then moved to Trieste to do a PhD at SISSA. He obtained his PhD cum laude in 2005 and afterwards spent three years at University College London as a Senior Research Fellow. During this period he also worked at Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics of Cornell University as a visiting scientist after winning a Bogue Research Fellowship. He then spent two years from 2008 to 2010 at NORDITA, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, as a Nordic Fellow

Last year (2011), some 286 leading scholars from across the continent of Europe were elected following a rigorous international peer review process, and were invited to accept membership of the Academia Europaea.

We are pleased to be able to acclaim 41 of the 2011 cohort, who are able to be present with us today:

Section History and Archaeology (31 elected in 2011 :Jean Bourgeois, Gent, BELGIUM: Bronze Age and Iron Age : burials, settlementsEurope : Bronze and Iron Age in Europe and esp. Western Europe Siberia : Altay, Scythians

Nikita L.Harwich, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, FRANCE: Contemporary Latin American History and Civilization

Sølvi Sogner, Oslo, NORWAY:Scandinavian history,ethnography,gender history,population studies

Balázs Trencsényi, Budapest, HUNGARY: talented and insightful young comparative historians In Europe and America producing path-breaking books and monographs, and building up research teams and international schools of European political thought. His originality emphatic and critical and gives way out from the regionally biased dichotomies of "West-East", "North-South", "developed-backward","adaptation of European model-national egoism". His achievements transcendthe disciplinary barriers.

Section Classics and Oriental Studies (5 elected in 2011)

Olga Spevak, Paris, FRANCE: Classics, succeeds in integrating modern insights in the nature of concessive clauses from a comparative (typological) point of view with a study of the history of concessive expressions in Latin. The results are original and will change the way these clauses are standardly described henceforth in our manuals.

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies (7 elected in 2011)LeilaT.Haaparanta, Helsinki, FINLAND: well-known scholar on early twentieth century theoretical philosophy and the history and philosophy of logic.

Ed Noort, Kropswolde (Gr.), THE NETHERLANDS: Ancient Hebrew Literature and

the History of Religion of Ancient Israel Behavioural Sciences (7 elected in 2011)Norbert Semmer, Bern, SWITZERLAND: is one of the internationally leading scientists in research on occupational health psychology. His two outstanding contributions concern (a) the demonstration of adverse health effects of performing illegitimate tasks in organisations ('offense to self'), and (b) evidence of the critical role of teamwork in medical emergency.

Social Sciences (14 elected in 2011)Tüzin Baycan, Istanbul, TURKEY: is a leading scholar in Europe in the area of urban planning and sustainable development.

Sigmund Grønmo, Bergen, NORWAY: Rector Univ. Bergen, Political Sciences,

Economic sociology, Network studies and structural analysis Sociology of time and methodology, Gunnel Gustafsson, Oslo, NORWAY: Her most important and internationally recognised accomplishment was design and organisation a set of international workshops on major science challenges and opportunities for the XXI century. These led to a formulation of the LUND declaration in 2009.

Law (5 elected in 2011)Thomas M. J. Möllers, Augsburg, GERMANY: has been activelyinvolved in the development of European economic law. Was awarded the Jean Monnet Chair for European Law, first in January in 2005 and ad personam in 2010.

Alenka Šelih, Bled, SLOVENIA: in the 60s the first to analyze the problem of the victim within criminal law; in the 70s drew attention to the problem of protection of privacy within criminal law; in the 80s she dealt with the problem of children's rights .

Brigitte Tag, Zurich, SWITZERLAND: one of the leading figures in criminal law and medical law among the European scholars.

Section Mathematics (7 elected in 2011)Uwe Jannsen, Regensburg, GERMANY: Galois groups, motives, motivic cohomology and various cohomology theories

Juerg Kramer, Berlin, GERMANY: precise asymptotics for Faltings heights of modular curves substantial contribution in Arakelov theory - generalization of arithmetic intersection theory to log-singular metrics

Philippe Michel, Lausanne, SWITZERLAND: outstanding researcher in analytic number theory of very modern type: arithmetic geometry, exponential sums, sieve methods, automorphic forms and allied representations, L-functions and more recently ergodic theory.

Section Informatics (39 elected in 2011)Franz Baader, Dresden, GERMANY: One of the founding fathers of the area of Description Logics, which lays the foundation for the WWW recommended Web Ontology Language OWL

Manfred Droste, Leipzig, GERMANY: leader of research in dealing with automata-theoretic problems using methods from algebra and mathematical logic.

Yannis Ioannidis, Athens, GREECE: First to offer impactful solutions on randomized query optimization, histograms for query result size estimation, scientific experiment management, personalization in databases, database summarization and query translation in natural language,

Ulrike Leopold-Wildburger, Graz, AUSTRIA: belonging to the upper 5% of researchers in business administration, combining methods from computer simulation, statistics and operations research

Bernhard Nebel, Freiburg, GERMANY: has pioneered the application of formal methods, in particular computational complexity analysis, to problems in knowledge representation and reasoning

Juergen Teich, Erlangen, GERMANY: internationally recognized researcher inthe area of Design Automation for Embedded Systems.

John Tucker, Swansea, UNITED KINGDOM: is a world authority on computability theory. he has invented and developed generalisations to any form of data and a wealth of radically new applications (in algebra, programming, hardware, biology, physics).

Physics and Engineering Sciences (67 elected in 2011)Marcis Auzinsh, Riga, LATVIA: Atomic and molecular physicsLaser spectroscopy.

Nihat Berker, Istanbul, TURKEY: is a theoretician, made numerous contributions to statistical physics in the area of phase transitions, application of the renormalization group and disordered systems.

Thomas Boller, Garching, GERMANY: research interests include Active Galactic Nuclei. In 1994 I established a new scientific research area onSeyfert 1 galaxies with narrow optical permitted emission lines.

Tamás Csörgö, Budapest, HUNGARY (2010): is a World wide recognized theoretical physicist in the field of high energy heavy ion research. He is also participating in large international collaborations as ALICE at CERN and PHENIX in BNL.

Rolf K.Eckhoff, Bergen, NORWAY: represents an essential area within engineering, namely that of safety engineering and technology.Eckhoff has become a world-wide capacity in the field of process safety and explosion prevention engineering.

Einar Hope, Bergen, NORWAY: explores both theoretical and methodologicalissues of practical relevance for the new competition policy in the international power gridHis research focuses on key topics such as the relationship between competition policy and sector-specific regulatory Policies under deregulation and market orientation, and undertakes a critical review of traditional approaches.

Physics and Engineering Sciences (67 elected in 2011) …ContinuedRezso G.Lovas, Debrecen, HUNGARY: Lovas's main contributionto nuclear theory consists in refining this cluster picture. He was among those who invented a way of quantifying clustering in nuclei. He proposed the hitherto most successful model for alpha decay, with which the life-time of alpha decaying nuclei can be successfully predicted based on an unbiassed microscopic description. His contributions to the field of light exotic nuclei (light nuclei with unusual proton-neutron ratio) have revealed that many of these are most successfully described in a cluster picture.

Luigi Lugiato, Como, ITALY: -He gave fundamental theoretical contributions to Nonlinear Optics and Quantum Optics, combining classical and quantum aspects.He pioneered the fields of Optical Bistability, of Optical Pattern Formation,

Dag Rune Olsen, Bergen, NORWAY: Radiation therapy,Physics, Applied and translational Life Sciences

Dieter Roehrich, Bergen, NORWAY: Experimental Nuclear PhysicsDiscovery of jet quenching in a strongly interacting Quark-Gluon Plasma

Christoph Scheidenberger, Darmstadt, GERMANY: is co-discoverer of far more than 100 new isotopes at the outskirts of the chart of nuclides at and close to astrophysical nucleosynthesis paths.

Section Chemical Sciences (20 elected in 2011)

Arkady Karyakin, Moscow, RUSSIA: Pioneer of Bioelectrocatalyisis using Hydrogenases

Janusz Lipkowski, Warsaw, POLAND: Crystallography and supra-molecular chemistry

Helmuth Moehwald, Potsdam, GERMANY: Colloidal Chemistry

Section Earth and Cosmic Sciences (8 elected in 2011)

Georges Calas, Paris, FRANCE: is one of the world´s most versatile proponents of the search for structure-property relationships in silicates of interest to earth and environmental sciences. He has been successful in determining the structural special of a vast number of elements and oxidation states, thereby laying the groundwork for mineralogy to contribute to understanding complex earth materials.

Section Physiology and Medicine (14 elected in 2011)Gabor Tamas, Szeged, HUNGARY: Gábor Tamás' group defined mechanisms capable of synchronizing neurons at gamma frequency and determined the function of neurogliaform cells in the cortex showing that these cells use diffuse GABA release for the modulation of microcircuits. Most importantly, they showed for the first time that axo-axonic cells, the most specific interneurons in the brain.

Oleg Atkov, Moscow, Russia: is a former cosmonaut of Russia. heads of department of new methods of diagnostics of the Institute of Clinical Cardiology of All-Union Cardiology Center of Science of Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR

Translational and Applied Biology (12 elected 2011)

Diána Bánáti, Brussels, BELGIUM: Chair of EFSA, expert in food safety, food policy and food regulatory sciences; food safety, food policy, consumer science and ethics.

Ole Arve Misund, Longyearbyen, NORWAY: Fisheries research policy; international fisheries conservation and management.

Anne Gro Vea Salvanes, Bergen, NORWAY: structure and functioning of marine food-webs. Environmental shaping of fish behaviour. Mariculture.

Geoffrey Burnstock MAE (UCLondon)

Sponsored by the Heinz-Nixdorf Foundation

“The concept of cotransmission: focus on ATP as a cotransmitter

and its significance in health and disease”

Tomas Hökfelt MAE (Stockholm)

Sponsored by The Heinz-Nixdorf Foundation

“Chemical signalling in the nervous system: A never-ending

complexity “