1999-
Trondheim
Norway
Main Building
NORWEGIAN
UNIVERSITY
OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The
World Cultural Council presented the 1999 Albert Einstein World
Award for Science to Prof. Robert Weinberg, Professor
of Biology, from the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts USA.
 |
|
Prof. Robert Weinberg and Prof. Magdalena Abakanowicz
winners of the Albert Einstein and the Leonardo Da Vinci World
Awards of Science and Arts respectively. |
The
Official Award Ceremony took place in Trondheim, Norway,
the host being the Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
on November the 11th, 1999. The Rector, Prof. Emil Spjotvoll,
and the President of the World Cultural Council, Dr. José
Rafael Estrada, presented the awards.
This
recognition was granted by the members of the Interdisciplinary
Committee of the World Cultural Council to Prof. Weinberg
for his valuable and diverse contributions in the field of Biomedical
Sciences, and in particular for his productive work on the genetic
and molecular basis of neo-plastic disease.
On
receiving the award Prof. Weinberg said,“ I am particularly
flattered to have been singled out for the Einstein Award. This
is an extraordinary honour and I follow here in the footsteps
of previous awardees for whom I have enormous respect and regard.
I can only express my deep appreciation for this honour to the
selection Committee”.
 |
|
Prof. Magdalena Abakanowicz signing the book of winners.
Dr. José Rafael Estrada, President of the World Cultural
Council and Rector Prof.Emil Spojotvoll acted as witness. |
The
Leonardo Da Vinci World Award for Arts was conferred to
Prof. Magdalena Abakanowicz, painter, sculptor and textile
artist whose creativity is directed towards the human being.
She
was selected as the winner of this award in recognition for her
creative and innovative work in the field of contemporary art.
She has held over a hundred single-artist exhibitions in museums
and galleries in Europe, America, Australia and Japan, mounting
each one by herself as a separate work of art. In 1991 she created
Arboreal Architecture, her concept of an ecological city.
“Thank
you very much for this award. I feel deeply honoured, and I also
feel extremely glad that it has happened in Norway, the country
that first showed my work to the world in a single-artist exhibition.
I would like to say that Art is mankind’s most harmless activity...
and it will remain mankind’s most astonishing activity...
Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of its existence;
it opens our eyes to see, and our brain to imagine...”
Prof.
Abakanowicz.
