Events

The International Advisory Board of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Established

26 08 2026

As the summer is winding down, on 25 August, members of the Presidium of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (Lietuvos mokslų akademija, LMA) convened for a meeting at which the members of the International Advisory Board of the LMA were announced. They include eminent international scientists and specialists from various fields. The Board consists of eleven members: two from each of five scientific divisions and one nominated by the Presidium of the LMA.

The Division of the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Arts nominated Prof. Dr Stein Kuhnle from the University of Bergen (Norway), a full member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, who researches the comparative and historical development of the welfare state and social and welfare policy, the relationship between voluntary organisations and the state, and the history of official statistics in the Nordic countries, and Prof. Dr Jolanta Gelumbeckaitė from Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany), who has published over 40 academic articles on textual studies, Old Lithuanian, historical syntax, Latin and its influence on Old Lithuanian, and the history of the Lithuanian and Baltic languages.

The Division of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry nominated Professor Emeritus Markku Leskelä, an outstanding chemist at the University of Helsinki (Finland), and Professor Emeritus Chennupati Jagadish, a physicist and former president of the Australian Academy of Science. Prof. Leskelä is widely known and highly regarded for his significant research into atomic layer deposition. Prof. Jagadish has over 40 years of experience in research in the fields of semiconductor physics, materials science, and optoelectronics. He headed the Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology Group at the Australian National University.

The Division of Biological, Medical, and Geosciences nominated the gastroenterologist Prof. Peter Malfertheiner, a professor emeritus at the Universities of Munich and Magdeburg (Germany). For twenty years, the professor has maintained close scientific and professional ties with Lithuanian gastroenterologists and the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and has made significant contributions to the development of medical science in Lithuania. The second candidate is Prof. Dr Mait Metspalu, director of the Institute of Genomics of the University of Tartu (Estonia). He has made significant contributions to the development of genomics, human population genetics, evolutionary biology, and personalised medicine in Estonia and worldwide. His research interests include population genetics, evolutionary genomics, and ancient DNA.

The Division of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences nominated Prof. Nazim Gruda, an agronomist, who works at the University of Bonn (Germany). He is one of the world’s leading scientists in the fields of sustainable agricultural production, soil cultivation systems, and the quality of fruit and vegetable produce. Prof. Gruda is making significant efforts to foster cooperation between the Lithuanian and Albanian academies of sciences: to strengthen bilateral relations, he is in charge of a scientist exchange programme between Albania and Lithuania. The second candidate is Dr Habil. Rimvydas Vasaitis, a forestry scientist and plant pathologist from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Many of his publications have been co-authored with Lithuanian scientists. Rimvydas Vasaitis has organised several international scientific conferences in Lithuania.

The Division of Technical Sciences put forward the candidacies of Prof. Miguel A. F. Sanjuán, a physicist from the King Juan Carlos University (Spain), and Prof. Janusz Kacprzyk, a computer scientist from the Polish Academy of Sciences. Prof. Sanjuán has authored over 180 scientific articles and edited several review books on the applications of nonlinear dynamical systems. He collaborates with Kaunas University of Technology on issues relating to the theory and application of nonlinear dynamical systems and organises seminars. Prof. Kacprzyk works in the fields of artificial intelligence, uncertainty and imprecision management, decision-making and management, and data science. His efforts in developing scientific ties between Lithuania and Poland, active involvement in researcher training, participation on doctoral thesis defence committees for computer scientists in Lithuania, and organisation of the annual international conference in Druskininkai are particularly worth mentioning.

The President of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences nominated his candidate for the International Advisory Board of the LMA – Prof. Dr habil. Marek Konarzewski, president of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His work focuses on the fields of physiological ecology and evolutionary physiology (birds and mammals). He is also actively involved in science popularisation.

Once the chair of the Board is elected in September, it will commence its work.

Dr Rolandas Maskoliūnas, chief specialist for public relations