!!Hungarian mathematician László Lovász receives the Barcelona Hypatia European Science Prize

!Barcelona - 5th February: AE member and current President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Prof. [Dr. László Lovász|Member/Lovász_László] received the Barcelona Hypatia European Science Prize, in the category of Science and Technology, from the hands of the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau.
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__The prize recognised his personal contributions  to Mathematics, and also his strong promotion of the values of academic freedom to pursue basic sciences and research and teaching in all areas of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Hungary.  The laudations pointed to the actions of the ‘Orban government’, where this freedom and the independence of action (within the Academy and some other institutions) is currently under threat from the Orban administration which is seeking to restrict the Hungarian Academy and has vetoed a number of University courses in Hungarian Universities that are “not economically” valued (by the current administration). The Academia Europaea expresses its full support to Professor Lovasz and to all of all our Hungarian members, in their desire to maintain their right to undertake academic research without external interference for political purposes.__
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[{Image src='Lovasz_Laszlo_small.jpg' caption='Dr. László Lovászwith the Barcelona Hypatia European Science Prize, in the category of Science and Technology' height='500' alt='Dr. László Lovász' class='image_left'}]
The  Barcelona Hypatia European Science Prize, an initiative of the Barcelona City Council in collaboration with  the Academia Europaea-Barcelona Knowledge Hub within the framework of the “Barcelona City of Science”  programme, seeks to spotlight science, as well as to promote, support and enhance the value of excellent research conducted in Europe and of its impact on society.
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Dr. László  Lovász received the   Barcelona   Hypatia European Science Prize, in the category of Science and Technology, from the handsof the Mayor of Barcelona,  Ada Colau. The Selection  Jury chose  to  award  the  prize  to  Dr. Lovász in recognition of his outstanding career and research conducted at the highest international level,  which has generated social impact in Hungary and abroad, putting mathematics as a scientific discipline to the  service of society.  Dr. Lovász is  a renowned mathematician and President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and his career especially stands out in the fields of combinatorial optimisation, algorithms, complexity, graph theory and random walk (RW).
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During the ceremony, Dr.  Lovász delivered his distinguished lecture  entitled,“Graph  Theory – from puzzles to a new paradigm”, and speeches were  given by: Gerardo  Pisarello, First  Deputy  Mayor  of Barcelona for Economy and   Labour,   Digital Technologies and International  Relations; Dr. Sierd  Cloetingh, President of Academia   Europaea; and Dr. Eva  Kondorosi, of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,  who presentedthe laudatiofor the winner of the prize.
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The  Mayor  of  Barcelona, Ada Colau, reminded all in attendance that Barcelona is a city that  “loves  and science and wants to position itself in the world as a city of reference for science, technology and innovation.” Ms. Colau  referred  to  recent  initiatives  implemented  bythe  Barcelona  City  Council,  such as  the City and Science Biennialor the Hypatia Prize, part of the Barcelona Science Plan, a “strategic project”. She also highlighted how science can be a “tool for reaffirming the values of democracy and improving people’s lives, as science is our instrument for overcoming the global challenges we face. Investing  in  science  is not just investing in a better future; it’s investing so that there is a future”.
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[{Image src='Colau_Ada_small.jpg' caption='Ms. Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona during the award ceremony.' height='350' alt='Ada Colau_Ada' align='center'}]
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Considered one  of the  best  mathematicians alive, Dr. Lovász has made innovative  discoveries in mathematics. His main contributions include the weak perfect graph conjecture, the Lovász local lemma, and the Lenstra–Lenstra–Lovász (LLL) lattice basis reduction algorithm.
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Dr. Lovász has received numerous awards and prizes, such as the Fulkerson, Grünwald, Pólya, Kyoto,  John  von  Neumann,  Gödel,  Széchenyi,  Knuth  and  Wolf  prizes, and  he  has  been appointed to more than a dozen academic and scientific societies, in the United States, Europe (Academia Europaea), Germany (Leopoldina), Holland and Sweden.
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 As former President of the International  Mathematical  Union,  he  promoted  collaborations  with  mathematicians  and  the public acceptance of mathematics as a scientific discipline to the service of society. As President of  the  Hungarian  Academy  of Sciences  since  2014  and current President  of  the World  Science Forum  (WSF),  Dr.  Lovász has been a champion of scientific  freedom, having made significant, lasting contributions toward dialogue between science and society throughout the world. 

!First edition of the Barcelona Hypatia European Science Prize

The   Barcelona   City   Council, in collaboration with the Academia Europaea-Barcelona Knowledge  Hub,  launched  this  first  edition  of  the  Barcelona  Hypatia  European Science Prize within the framework of the “Barcelona City of Science” programme, which seeks to project the  city as a European  capital  of  research  and  innovation.  The  main  goal  of  the  Prize  is  to spotlight science, as well as to promote, support and enhance the value of excellent research conducted in Europe and of its impact on society.
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The  Hypatia  Prize features  a  monetary  award  of  30,000  euros  and will  be  awarded  annually, rotating each year among three major areas of knowledge: Science and Technology (category of  this  first  edition);  Life  and  Health  Sciences  (2019);  and Humanities  and  Social  Sciences (2020).
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For this first edition, the five members comprising the Selection Jury were: Dr. Sierd Cloetingh, Jury  President  and  also President  of  Academia Europaea; Dr.  Ricard  Guerrero,  Jury  Secretary; and Dr. Anna Omedes, Dr. María Josefa Yzuel, and Dr. IgnasiCasanova, Jury Members. Also in attendance, having a voice but not a vote, was Ms. Kimberly Katte, Manager of the Barcelona Knowledge Hub of the Academia Europaea.
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[{Image src='jury_members_small.jpg' caption='Dr. László Lovászwith some members of the jury during the award ceremony held at the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona city h' height='500' alt='Hypatia Prize' align='center'}]
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The Hypatia Prize constitutes one of the mainprogrammes of the  Barcelona Science Plan, a strategic initiative of Barcelona City Council to promote the research and innovation infrastructures of the city. Its main objective is to consolidate Barcelona as a European capital of research and innovation.
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[Photo gallery|http://barcelona.acadeuro.org/bkhaction/gallery/hypatia-prize-award-2018]
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[{Image src='hypatia_european_science_prize.jpg' caption='' height='200' alt='hypatia_european_science_prize.jpg'}]