Prof. Ngoc Thanh Nguyen, head of the Department of Applied Computer Science at our Faculty, has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA), an international, non-governmental scientific organisation based in Salzburg (Austria). It brings together around 2,000 outstanding scientists, artists and experts from various fields, including Nobel Prize laureates.

Membership in the Academy is a form of recognition for significant scientific, artistic, and professional achievements. Candidates are nominated and selected on the basis of their achievements and contributions to the development of their field.

“I am grateful for the honour of being invited to such a distinguished group. I regard this distinction not only as recognition of my work so far, but above all as a great commitment for the future. The fact that the Academy combines the world of science with the world of culture and art is particularly important for me,” said Prof. Ngoc Thanh Nguyen.

He added that he believed it is precisely at the intersection of these fields that the most important answers to the challenges of modern times are born.

“Although I am a member of Section 6 ‘Technical Sciences and Environmental Protection’, the fact that the Academy also brings together people from culture and the arts gives a huge interdisciplinary effect. The combination of science, culture, and art in one space is for me not only symbolic but above all deeply practical. We live in times when the greatest challenges of our era – from artificial intelligence ethics, through climate change, to bioethical issues – cannot be addressed within the confines of a single, narrow specialisation,” explains the scientist.

In addition to his scientific interests, the professor has other passions, such as mountaineering, reading poetry – especially in Vietnamese – as well as literature about space.

European community of scientists and artists

The main goal of the Academy, founded 36 years ago, is to support the development of science, culture, and art, as well as international cooperation. It is active among others in the fields of humanities, medicine, natural sciences, technology, economics, and the arts. The academy organises conferences, academic meetings and initiatives aimed at exchanging knowledge and seeking solutions to the most important problems facing contemporary Europe.

The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) is one of the most prestigious interdisciplinary and transnational intellectual networks in Europe. Prof. Nguyen notes that EASA has nearly 40 honorary members, Nobel Prize winners in various fields (including the physicists Peter Higgs, Anton Zeilinger, and Ferenc Krausz, the chemist Emmanuelle Charpentier, and the peace advocate Mikhail Gorbachev).

EASA was founded in 1990 in Salzburg, Austria. Its founders were the renowned cardiac surgeon Felix Unger, the Archbishop of Vienna – Cardinal Franz König, and the philosopher and politician Nikolaus Lobkowicz. The academy was established shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the goal of creating a shared intellectual centre that would bring together scientists and artists from across European geopolitical barriers. It operates as an independent non-profit association.

Members of the Academy are divided into 7 classes: Humanities, Medicine, Art, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Law and Economics, Technical and Environmental Sciences, World Religions.

In addition to the classes, EASA also has a network of national delegates who represent the Academy in individual countries, verify nominations, and support local academic activities.

Prof. Nguyen has been a member of the Scientific Excellence Council for two terms and a member of the Committee on Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.