Three Armenian scientists honored with Victor Hambardzumyan award

The annual award honoring Victor Hambardzumyan (1908-1996), the legendary Soviet Armenian astrophysicist and scholar, was this year bestowed on three Armenian scientists.

The first awardee is Felix Aharonyan (Germany and Ireland), who was nominated by Italy’s Lynch National Academy for his considerable contribution in the sphere of high energy astrophysics space speedometer research. The second prize was shared between Igor Karachentsev (Russia) and Blet Tali (US). The latter was nominated for his fundamental investments in local space research.

At a news conference that followed the event, Aharonyan was asked to comment on the differences between scholar;y activities in Armenia and Italy. “Today we have more opportunities than before. In the Soviet times, articles could not be printed without permission. And there was a shortage of paper. But today, it doesn’t absolutely matter where you are. The problem is that there are few young scientists in Armenia. But we see a kind of movement striking its roots. People here simply have to think about things other than science, but if they overcome social difficulties, we will have no problems in scientific activities,” he replied.

Speaking further, Karachentsev praised the great astrophysicist who he said was his scientific supervisor. “I have defended my post-graduate thesis in Armenia, and I am happy that I was Victor Hambardzumyan’s student. When in 1975, we knew that a big observatory was being built in the South Caucasus, I moved there. And I have been working there for 40 years now,” he said.

The third prize winner, Talin, said it was a big honor for him to be awarded with the prize honoring the world-acclaimed scientist.

“We will continue the cooperating with Armenia, as cooperation is the only way that helps contribute to the world’s key scientific achievements,” he noted.

The prize, which totals 500,000 US Dollars, was shared among the awardees.

All the three promised to invest the money in the development of science in Armenia, particularly encouraging the scholars to visit the observatories where they conduct research. Aharonyan said that they would allocate 50,000 Dollars to the National Academy of Science.