ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
In Salzburg, Austria, during June 28th to July 2nd, 2022 was held celebration of the 30th anniversary of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) and General Academy of EASA (Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea). On this occasion were organized a few workshops with special topics of the different themes and, also, inauguration of new accepted 49 academicians, who became chosen during 2019 to 2022 (Figures 1 and 2).
Schedules of the Workshops, evening reception and Festive Session held during June 30th, July 1st and July 2nd (1-3): a) WORKSHOP: Mental Health in challenging times – A challenge for Complexity Science on Thursday, June 30 2022 (Chair: Prof. Dr. Günter Schiepek); b) WORKSHOP: Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Societal Impact on Friday, July 1 2022 (Chair: Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer); c) WORKSHOP: Expert-Group: Environment, Climate, and Energy on Friday, July 1 2022 (Chair: Prod. dr. Sergio Orlandi); d) Evening Reception on Friday, July 1 2022; e) WORKSHOP; Official Journal of EASA – PEASA on Saturday, July 2 2022 (Chair: Prof. Dr. Ioannis Liritzis); f) WORKSHOP: Expert-Group: Education-Research-Innovation on Saturday, July 2 2022 (Chair: Prof. Dr. Ioannis Liritzis); g) General Assembly of EASA on Saturday, July 2 2022; and h) Festive Session (with inauguration of our new members) on Saturday, July 2 2022 (Figures 3- 14).
Historical background of the EASA
The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, Latin: Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 34 Nobel Prize laureates (1). The academy is a non-profit association according to the Austrian Association. The European Academy of Sciences and Arts is a learned society of scientists and artists, founded by Felix Unger, Professor of Cardiosurgery (1). The academy was founded 1990, is situated in Salzburg and has been supported by the city of Vienna, the government of Austria, and the European Commission. The EASA is now headed by President Klaus Mainzer, TUM Emeritus of Excellence at the Technical University of Munich and Senior Professor at the Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Center of the University of Tübingen. The European Academy of Sciences and Arts president Klaus Mainzer addressing the Academy in 2022. The Vice presidents are Birgit Harreß, Wolfango Plastino, and Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth (3).
It is unrelated to and should not be confused with a different, highly controversial, and less well-established academy, the Belgium-based European Academy of Sciences (1-3). It is a member of the InterAcademy Partnership (1). Its activities have included a collaboration with the Latvian Academy of Sciences: the European-Latvian Institute for Cultural and Scientific Exchange (EUROLAT), founded in 1993 (1).
The origins date back to a scientific working group with the Salzburg Felix Unger, the Archbishop from Vienna Franz König and the political scientist and philosopher Nikolaus Lobkowicz (3). On 7 March 1990, the EASA was officially founded in Salzburg, where the Academy is still located until today (3).
The Festive Plenary of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts takes place annually with the festive admission of new members in Salzburg. On the occasion of the 25th- and 30th- anniversary the celebrations took place with the Federal Presidents of Austria and other Presidents of European countries. Other Protectors (national patrons) of the academy are King Philippe of Belgium, Borut Pahor (State President of Slovenia), Gjorge Ivanov (State President of Macedonia) and since 12 June 2018 Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. Past Protektors are in the former EU Commission President and Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jacques Santer, the former King of Spain Juan Carlos I and the former EU Commission President and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi (1, 3).
The European Academy of Sciences and Arts is politically independent and financed by donations, private sponsors and public institutions. The activities of the academy do not aim at financial profit (1). The academy is a forum of scholars who take up interdisciplinarily and trannsdisciplinarily scientific topics with societal impact.
In 2020, the academy had round about 2000 members worldwide, including 34 Nobel Prize Laureates (3). These are respected and recommended scientists and artists, among them 33 Nobel prize laureates. The membership can be awarded following suggestions of their members. The Senate decides on admission on the basis of recommendations of the nomination commission. The membership is considered as distinction of the merits in science and society (1). Famous members of the academy are in the economist Hans-Werner Sinn, Michail Gorbatschow (Nobel Peace Prize), the artist Jenny Holzer and Pope em. Benedict XVI. Current members who are Nobel
Members of the Academy come from 73 countries and are divided into eight classes:(3):
Prize of Tolerance: Since 1997 the European Academy of Sciences and Arts has awarded the Prize of Tolerance to acknowledge the engagement for humanity and tolerance. Guided by the targets of the Charter of Tolerance, this prize is awarded to persons or institutions which actively engage for tolerance and humanness, but also for cross-border dialogue and against racism (1).
The previous award recipients are:
Rings of Tolerance
Prize award of the Rings of Tolerance in the City Hall of Cologne Since 2012, the academy annually awards the Rings of Tolerance to members of the three religions of Abraham according to Lessing’s Parable of the Ring, in order to support justice and tolerance between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
The previous award winners are (3):
Fellows of EASA
Following are some fellows of European Academy of Sciences and Arts:
Some facts about Celebration of 30th anniversary
At the ceremony celebrating the 30th anniversary of EASA (Salzburg, June 30th – July 2nd, 2022), several important names from all scientific fields that EASA has covered since its foundation 30 years ago, participated – a total of 7 classes.
Due to the Corona pandemic, the Academy assembly was not held in 2021. The General Assembly of EASA was led by the presidency consisting of: President: Professor Klaus Mainzer MD; Vice-Presidents: Prof. Birgit Harreß MD; Secretary: Prof. Kristin De Troyer, MD and Treasurer: Karl Salm. and Founder of EASA. During the ceremonial inauguration, Felix Unger handed over the presidential chain to the new president, prof. Klaus Mainzer MD, who was elected in 2020. The new president, Professor Mainzer, submitted a report on the work of EASA and presented some ideas from the program of activities of EASA in the future, which should be realized by the new Presidency. The motto of the new President was – sustainable innovation of EASA, and that the Academy should be effective, with a special emphasis that EASA should focus more attention and activities on the promotion of human rights, globally. Mainzer proposed that EASA deal with the United Nations program which has 17 points.
As part of the assembly, the famous professor Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaeker gave a lecture on environmental preservation, which received a special recognition from the Academy. Members of EASA are nominated and elected by the Senate of the Academy based on their merits in the field of scientific research and other achievements. Admission to EASA is recognition and reward for professional and scientific work as well as contribution to the development of society. After the working part of the Assembly, there was a ceremonial part of the assembly where diplomas were presented to the new academics, who were elected at the Senate session held on May 21, 2021. After the working part of the Assembly, there was a ceremonial part of the assembly where diplomas were presented to the new academics, who were elected at the Senate session on May 21, 2021. A total of 49 new academics from several European countries and the world, including scientists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, received Academy diplomas, namely: professors of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sarajevo -prof. Izet Mašić MD (member of the World Academy of Sciences and Arts, World Academy of Medical Informatics and President of the Medical Academy of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and prof. Aida Kulo Ćesić MD (class of medical sciences), then professor of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Sarajevo – Almir Badnjević (class of technical sciences, and both are members of IANUBIH), and professor prof. Franjo Topic (class of world religions), from the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Sarajevo, honorary president of the Pan-European Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina and honorary president of HKD Napredak.
Academy diplomas were received by some from Serbia and from Croatia by prof. Pavo Barišić MD, prof. Dejan Jović MD, prof. Miomir Žužul MD, prof. Srećko Gajović MD and Prof. Marin Milković MD.
The author of this text actively participated in discussions at several sessions: on mental health, on scientific education, scientific publishing and artificial intelligence, considering his experiences in these areas. One of the notable examples referred to the Expert Systems, which President Maizner spoke about in his presentation, emphasizing their application in clinical work, to which I asked his opinion “Why expert systems, which were intensively used in the seventies and eighties, in this century literally stopped in development and some were almost forgotten” he mentioned those that were known to everyone: Internist, Mycin, Oncocin, Casnet, Cadiag etc. Masic made an inquiry, whether Mainzer thinks that maybe, in his opinion, there are two key reasons – the dysplosion of the use of ICT in the last 20 years, and Big Data, which “occupied” almost all fields of science and profession. Mainzer’s answer was in agreement with my opinion, although I did not get a concrete answer, which are the key reasons for less and less training, upgrading and the use of already developed expert systems, and only those that appeared in use in the last two decades. Unfortunately, even the discussion of other participants of this session did not give a conclusion tongue twisters. This is the immediate reason and motive that I decided to ask about this (through some key questions) to the existing (living) guardians of expert systems – members of IAHSI, so that the scientific community might get some answers to this dilemma that I spoke about at the EASA Days in Salzburg.
There was also a great controversy surrounding the founding of the Academy’s new scientific journal – called Proceedings of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (PEASA). I pointed out in the discussion, and based on my many years of experience in editing several scientific indexed journals, that the title PEASA is inadequate, because it refers more to the publication of papers presented at scientific meetings and their assessment is not adequate to that of scientific journals indexed in relevant scientific databases available globally for use. A special problem is the interdisciplinary nature of the papers that can be applied to this journal, and how the authors need to prepare their papers textually, linguistically and technically for such a diverse journal, including the BOMRAD or IMRAD form, IJCM, EASE and COPE rules, etc. Considering little experience in the hall regarding the editing of the magazine, this was not discussed much and easily concluded that the magazine should be started, and the proposal that was submitted in written form was adopted (attached) (1,4).
EASA informs that the workshop: EXPERT- GROUP : OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF EASA/Chair: Prof. Dr. Ioannis LIRITZIS. July 2, 2022.
The launching of our official journal named Proceedings of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (PEASA) (www.peasa.eu) We encourage you to submit various types and categories of articles. In our website go to ARTICLES and scroll and see TOPICS and CATEGORIES. In each one, you may Read More about the content of the respective field. You may then submit anything that falls within the TOPIC and /or CATEGORY. We try to produce the 1st issue (Sept 2022) while PEASA will run on a biannual basis (Sept – Febr.), at present. Maybe we will allow the period of autumn beginning of winter (Sept-end of Nov) to accept material for publication which would go to the Sept issue (PEASA Vol.1, No.1, 2022. From February/March the 2nd issue (PEASA Vol.2, No.1, 2023). The articles once reviewed, and proof red go immediately online not waiting until the month of the coming issue, in order to start getting citations. Each article whatever type shall be assigned a DOI from zenodo. After the first 2 issues are complete applications shall be made to indexing databases for scientific journals. Although we are in the process of making a submission system, in order to save time meanwhile you are encouraged to submit your article following at least the basic data as described in https://www.peasa.eu/guidelines-for-authors/, and concerning reference format follow APA[1][1]. Should you submit your article remember it should go through a peer review (see https://www.peasa.eu/review-process/). Also, you may suggest at least 2 members of the Editorial Board most related to your article content (see https://www.peasa.eu/guidelines-for-authors/). The review process takes some time, and it is one accounting parameter in the competitive publishing world. We are all fully aware of this thus we shall exert a particular effort to have: a) a final decision within 1 month of receiving the article, b) a thorough evaluation without sacrificing the quality and PEASA’s targeted and maintained reputation, while c) as it will be online this journal we will demand all methods, results, figures, software development, curves etc, being included in the article or on a supplementary appendix or to an academically accepted repository, hence the reported results can be reproducible.
The often used and becoming rule sentences of the type “…characteristic curves….are presented….”, “…a costumed made algorithm….”, “…a home-made device…”, etc are not acceptable, but only if these (the many results, data, and scripts) are shown in some way (see, c, above). The Task Force, which undertook the task to form the PEASA by decision of the Senate, has made a thorough investigation in these three aspects and our motto is reliability-truthfulness-integrity –competence, which indeed serves the research, innovation, education, and society. The interdisciplinary & transdisciplinary nature is mostly encouraged. Note that in all articles, correspondences etc, references should accompany any submitted material. We encourage New Members to write under each topic/category but especially in Academic Engagement/ Inaugural articles. We encourage new members to offer their expertise to EASA’s activities and PEASA is one to which everyone can contribute. All of us elected members have been honored by the EASA prestigious establishment, hence active involvement in publishing in PEASA articles or proceedings of workshops (peer reviewed) is the least of obligation we owe to this academic society. You may send your inquiries and/or articles (reviews, book reviews, correspondence/opinion research articles, etc, see all TOPICS and CATEGORIES please) in our e-mail of PEASA office: peasa@euro-acad.eu, c/o Prof Ioannis Liritzis, Editor in Chief or assistant Mrs. Doris Klinda. Last but not least, it is recommended you scroll over the various pages of our Journal and tour the potential of having your views/articles exposed.
