Every year, the European Academy of Science awards the Blaise Pascal medal to outstanding scientists. This year, it was decided that one of the medals is awarded to Mathematics and specifically to Professor Athanassios Fokas. On average, it awards a total of five medals in some of its disciplines, which include Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Biomedical Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Material Sciences, and Humanities.
Professor Fokas was also elected a member of Academia Europaea. Together with the distinguished mathematician Dimitri Christodoulou they are the only Greek mathematician in the Mathematics section of the Academy. Also, apparently, he is the only member of his department, the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, in this section (a few of his colleagues are members of the sections of Physical and Engineering Sciences and of Earth and Cosmic Sciences). Following this election, Professor Fokas is now a member of all three European Academies, namely Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences, and European Academy of Sciences and Arts.