The 1999 Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science was awarded ex aequo to Professors Marian Ewurama Addy from Ghana and Emil Gabrielian from Armenia at a ceremony organized in UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters in November 1999.

Professor Marian Addy (born 1942) is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Ghana, where she specializes in teaching and researching the clinical aspects of biochemistry. Among other research projects, she has led the departmental research group on medicinal plants and is currenly using the hepatic isozyme induced by pollutants as a means of monitoring pollution in the aquatic environment.

She is current or past President of a number of professional associations, including the Ghana Biochemical Society, Association of Women in Science and Technology and the Accra branch of the Ghana Science Association. In 1978-1979, as Director of Programmes for the Science Education Programme for Africa (SEPA), an African intergovernmental organization dedicated to the teaching of science to first and second cycle institutions, she was responsible for initiating programmes which included a two-year programme funded by USAID in science teacher education and non-formal education.

As part of her activities to popularize science, Professor Addy has been hosting a televised weekly National Science and Mathematics Quiz programme since 1994. The highly popular quiz show, in which secondary school teams from around the country compete, has the dual goal of motivating students to study science and helping the general public to accept and understand science. The questions are designed to be of relevance to people’s daily lives. The programme is sponsored by industry. In recognition of her accomplishments in ‘marketing’ science to the public, the Chartered Institute of Marketing in Ghana nominated Professor Addy ‘Marketing Woman of the Year’ in 1995, a departure from the Institute’s usual practice of rewarding accomplishments in marketing goods or services.

Professor Addy is conscious of being a role model for many young girls who know her either through her Quiz show appearances or through her numerous visits to science clubs in secondary schools and her participation in schools’ non-formal scientific activities. It is her hope that through her actions she will have influenced at least some students to choose a career in the sciences.

Professor Addy is keen to launch a radio or television programme which would review traditional or superstitious beliefs about phenomena and explain these same phenomena in scientific terms. Biological phenomena such as infertility, birth defects and causes of common diseases could serve as a starting point. Subsequently, physical and mathematical phenomena (e.g. thunder and lightning) and the use of technologies in everyday life could be dealt with in the programme.

In a keynote address to the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on 13 July 1999, Professor Addy explained her motivation. ‘Public understanding of science is crucial for development’ she said. ‘If people do not understand science, they may not accept its products. The difficulty in getting people to accept genetically modified foods illustrates this. In our part of the world, public understanding of science is what is likely to help people rid themselves of beliefs which drive them to ascribe natural phenomena to mysticism and superstition. If we do not get rid of those beliefs, we will continue to fall backwards instead of moving forward. An activity that should be carried out in the near future is one that uses drama, or some other form of presentation that our people enjoy, to give people explanations for natural phenomena. If they do not get explanations, we cannot blame them if they continue to interpret these phenomena in terms of superstition and mysticism’.

A physician specializing in pharmacology, Professor Gabrielian (born 1931) is a former Rector of Yerevan Medical Institute (1971-1975) and former Minister of Health (1975-1989). During his time as Minister, he developed a more egalitarian form of healthcare for the population, including The day of Open Doors, one day in each week when the general public was able to consult leading medical specialists. He also distinguished himself for his efforts to mitigate the trauma endured by the Armenian population after the 1988 earthquake, including the setting up of a transnational system of telemedicine with the support of NASA to treat earthquake victims. ‘During the devastating earthquake’ wrote USSR Minister of Health E. Chazov in 1990 in the journal Vrach, ‘E. Gabrielian greatly contributed to the organization of adequate healthcare of wounded persons at the highest level of modern medicine. The Armenian nation should not forget his contribution to saving thousands of lives.’ Professor Gabrielian’s own personal experience of the earthquake is summarized in his book, Collaps (1993), which also contains valuable data on the emotional stress suffered by the population and on the provision of medical and humanitarian aid.

A second book familiar to the general public is To be or not to be (1987). Published in Armenian and Russian, the book reflects Professor Gabrielian’s attachment to preventive medicine. To be or not to be popularizes scientific knowledge of the effects of tobacco, alcohol and narcotics. Five years after the book’s publication, Professor Gabrielian was named Director-General of the Drug and Medical Technology Agency and Head of the Research Laboratory of Pharmacology of Blood Circulation. He is today also President of the Pharmacological Association of Armenia.

A prolific writer, with some 300 scientific articles, 100 popular articles and several books to his name, Professor Gabrielian serves on the editorial boards of a number of national and international journals. He is Editor-in-Chief of Physcopharmacology, to name but one, and is a strong advocate of the popularization of history and use of folk medicine. It was Professor Gabrielian who masterminded the biography of the ancient Armenian physician, Amirdovlat Amassiaci. He is also the author of a biography of the Russian scientist I. M. Sechenov (1957).

In recognition of his contribution to the development of Armenian science and medicine, and of his efforts to ensure that all Armenians benefit from advances in medicine, Professor Gabrielian has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1994) and appointed to the Board of the National Foundation of Science and Advanced Technologies of Armenia, among other distinctions. Professor Gabrielian may be contacted at: gabri@sci.am   ; egabri@pharm.am