Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades, handed over on Monday evening the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts excellence award for 2020-2021 to distinguished Cypriots Tony Kouzarides and Nikos Kouroussis, during a special ceremony at the Presidential Palace.
Kouzarides was awarded in the Category of Positive Sciences for 2020 and Kouroussis in the Category of Letters and Arts for 2021.
Addressing the ceremony, Anastasiades elaborated on their work and contribution in each sector. Moreover he referred to the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts and and its mission to recognise and promote excellence in Science, Letters, and Arts.
Anastasiades assured that the state will continue to support the Academy, contributing to the success of its members` mission. He expressed certainty that the Academy will become a beacon of cultural and scientific achievements, with effect both at the local and the international level.
Tony Kouzarides is Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Cambridge and a Senior Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute. He is also the director and co-founder of the new Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge, which has a mission to deliver better therapies by connecting academia with industry. Kouzarides did his bachelors degree at Leeds University, and his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He then did postdoctoral work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and at New York University Medical Center. He returned to the UK to set up his own lab at the Gurdon Institute.
He has been elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation, Fellow of the British Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) and is a Cancer Research UK Gibb Fellow. Kouzarides has been awarded the Wellcome Trust Award for Research in Biochemistry Related to Medicine (UK), the Tenovus Medal (UK), the Bodossaki Foundation prize in Biology (Greece), the Bijvoet Medal (Holland), the Biochemical Society Award Novartis Medal and Prize (UK) and the Heinrich Wieland Prize (Germany).
Nikos Kouroussis studied at the St. Martins and Hornsey College of Art in London. He was awarded a scholarship from the British Council and he took stage design lessons in London and was awarded a scholarship from Fulbright Institute to study, research and lecture at the Pratt University in New York and at the South Dakota State University, USA. He was a stage and costume design at the Cyprus Theatrical Organization, the National Theatre of Greece and the Deutsches Theatre of Berlin.
He presented his work in many solo and group exhibitions in Cyprus, Greece, the United States and throughout Europe. He participated and many prestigious international exhibitions including the 1968 India Triennale in New Delhi, in 1969 at Young Artists Biennale in Paris, in 1970 at the Commonwealth Institute in London, in 1971 at Sao Paulo Biennale, in 1972 at the Engraving Biennale in Venice, in 1972 and 1990 at Venice Biennale, and many more. His work is in many public and private collections and his sculptures are in numerous public spaces.
