Professor of Botany Meelis Pärtel elected as member of Academia Europaea

Meelis Pärtel, Professor of Botany at the University of Tartu, was elected to Academia Europaea, the Pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters and Sciences. Pärtel will be active in the academy’s Ecology and Evolution section, where he sees strengthening connections between ecology and other research fields as his most important task.

Academia Europaea is a European non-governmental organisation that brings together top researchers from various fields across Europe. The academy provides research-organisational advice to governments and international institutions, fosters interdisciplinary relationships, maps out significant scientific issues for Europe, and proposes ways to investigate them, among other things.

Meelis Pärtel has been Professor of Botany at the University of Tartu since 2002. He has received the national research award three times and is among the highly cited scientists in the fields of environment and ecology, as well as plant and animal science.

The Ecology and Evolution section of Academia Europaea, which Pärtel will join, explores ways to halt the decline of biodiversity and support the integral functioning of ecosystems. Pärtel emphasises the importance of developing ecological literacy both in society at large and within other fields of research. “Only if we consider biodiversity and ecosystem functioning can we achieve successful societies, a sustainable economy, and good human health. Through the activities of Academia Europaea, we can integrate ecology with other fields of research at an excellence level, and find ways to disseminate the fundamentals of ecology more broadly in society,” said Pärtel.

The proposal of two Academia Europaea members from different countries is required to elect new members. The main criterion for evaluating the candidates is excellence in research. The academy includes 24 members from Estonia. According to Pärtel, the fact that he was elected a member is a great recognition for the entire school of ecology of the University of Tartu.

Three Estonian researchers were elected as new members of Academia Europaea. Along with Pärtel, Liisi Keedus from Tallinn University and Tõnis Timmusk from the Tallinn University of Technology joined the academy.