11/18/96

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Research centers announce 1996 prize for Eastern European scholars

STANFORD -- The Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, in conjunction with three international and two other national institutions, will present the 1996 New Europe Prize to Eors Szathmary, professor of biology at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, at the behavioral sciences center.

The prize, which includes a $50,000 grant, is part of an effort to build new intellectual resources in the former Soviet bloc. It is awarded to East European scholars who have studied at one of the six participating institutes and who are committed to building independent centers for scholarship in their home countries.

At the ceremony Szathmary will describe his plans to use the award to establish a program in theoretical biology in Budapest.

The New Europe Prize is intended to help stabilize Central and Eastern European societies and counteract the loss of scholars to the west by building cultural and intellectual infrastructures to underpin democratic institutions. Though small by western standards, the $50,000 grant accompanying each New Europe Prize represents a substantial sum in the Eastern European countries.

The six centers administering the awards are the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, Calif., Neil Smelser, director; the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J., Philip Griffiths, director; the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, N.C., W. Robert Connor, director; the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Wassenaar, Holland, Henk Wesseling, director; the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, Björn Wittrock, director; and the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study) of Berlin, Germany, Wolf Lepenies, director.

The awards are underwritten by a combination of private and state funding from the United States and Western Europe, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago; the Fritz Thyssen Foundation of Cologne, Germany; the Swedish Council for Studies of Higher Education; and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Netherlands.

-Neil Smelser-

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