Bulletin

Issue: August/September 2006

News

Onassis Prize for Hellenic Centre

The National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research at La Trobe University has been awarded one of two 2006 Onassis International Prizes for its promotion of Hellenism.

Professor Tamis at La Trobe’s Hellenic
Centre.

The prize is widely regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize in international recognition and prestige.

It comes with a grant of (US)$200,000, which will be presented to the Director of the Centre, Professor Anastasios Tamis, by the President of the Hellenic Republic in Athens in October.

Professor Tamis says this year’s awards are unique since both have gone to universities - La Trobe in Australia, and Harvard in the US.

It is also the first time an award has gone to Australia. Previous recipients include Harold Macmillan, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Helmut Schmidt, Vaclav Havel, Jimmy Carter, and the Greek composer, Mikis Theodorakis.

Welcoming the achievement, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Stoddart, praised the energetic direction of the National Centre by Professor Tamis, his colleagues and staff.

‘The award also represents a tangible and impressive return on investment for the many members of the Hellenic community in Australia who have cooperated to establish and enhance this Centre,’ Professor Stoddart said.

The National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research was established in 1997 with generous benefactions from Melbourne business man, Dr Zissis Dardalis and Marathon Food Industries. It operates under the leadership of the Society for Hellenic Studies and Research, and is strongly supported by the Greek community.

Centre Patrons include the President of the Hellenic Republic, the President of the Republic of Cyprus and former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser. The Centre has helped develop and maintain strong academic links between Metropolitan Greeks and Cypriots and Hellenes of the Diaspora to enhance social, cultural, historical, linguistic, anthropological, scientific and other research.

Professor Tamis says the Centre brings practical benefits by enriching the lives of Greeks and Cypriots and the wider Australian society in which they live.

While acknowledging the quality of study and research on Hellenism conducted in the Centre, he says the Onassis Prize means ‘we now feel stronger the responsibility to strive for excellence in our effort to enhance the precious values of Greek civilisation, history, language and heritage in Australia and the wider region of Australasia, including China which, along with Greece, is one of the most important civilisations of antiquity. ‘

Former La Trobe Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Osborne, Chair of the Society for Hellenic Studies and Research, added that the National Centre would continue to expand its promotion and dissemination of Hellenism, and was already successfully developing programs of study and research in China.

Focal point

The Centre - with its large library, archives and other collections - has become a focal point for Hellenic study and research in Australasia and beyond. With a staff of some 20 researchers, it comprises three specialist research institutes: the Australian Institute for Macedonian Studies; the Institute for Cypriot Studies and the Institute for Pontic and Asia Minor Studies.

The Dardalis Archives of the Hellenic Diaspora are a key feature of the Centre. Their contents are accessible by digital technology to scholars world-wide. More than 60 collections are available on-line and others on CD-ROM.

The archives comprise original documents, manuscripts, photographs, journals, monographs, audiovisual and other materials retrieved from Greece, the Middle-East, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.