The Western University of Timișoara proposes a high-impact component within the cultural program "Timișoara 2023 - European Capital of Culture", through the agenda of events dedicated to the entire community, under the banner "At UVT, culture is capital!".

In the series of these events, in the first part of this year, the academic community of UVT has the special honor of hosting three exceptional meetings, with major personalities of world art and science, laureates of the Nobel Prizes in the field of literature and chemistry. The three personalities of international culture and science will be awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa UVT, in academic and public ceremonies with the most special reverberations.

In early April, the writer Orhan Pamuk, laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature (2006), will be invited to a special meeting with the Timisoara public, an absolute first for the local cultural environment. The laureate is considered one of the most famous contemporary Turkish writers, with his works translated into more than 40 languages ​​and published in more than 100 countries. In the most important themes that play a central role in his works, the Turkish writer evokes the relationship between Eastern and Western culture, but also the strong specificity of the Turkish mentality, in which floats the multiple melancholy that can also be felt in the air of Istanbul, explained by Orhan Pamuk by the term hüzün, a specifically Turkish synonym for melancholy as understood by Western Europeans.

Then, also in April, the researcher Jean-Marie Lehn, laureate of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1987), honorary member of the Romanian Academy, will be present at UVT for a meeting of great intellectual brilliance, under the sign of passion for science. The French academic was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987, along with two other researchers, for the work done in the synthesis of cryptands. The awarding of the distinction was motivated by the fact that Jean-Marie Lehn found in 1969 related molecules, which he called "cryptand", through which it is possible to create chemical compounds in chemical reactions that have a significant impact on biological processes.

Also, the researcher Jean-Pierre Sauvage, laureate of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (2016), will be the guest of the UVT academic community, for a debate that brings all scientific knowledge to the fore, in a truly contemporary way. A leading figure in the field of chemical research, Jean-Pierre Sauvage was named laureate of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions, together with two other researchers, in the study of a complex of two interconnected ring-shaped molecules.

UVT rector, Marilen Gabriel Pirtea: "As a high-performance academic space, the Western University of Timișoara assumes a major role in the Timișoara community, for the year of the European Capital of Culture, in 2023. The invitation to UVT of the three Nobel Prize laureates, this year, is part of a wider agenda, which UVT offers to culture lovers from a local, national and European level. The UVT agenda from 2023 includes dozens of valuable events, debates, conferences, workshops and productions. We are waiting for you at UVT, where culture is capital!"

The exact dates for the three events will be publicly communicated ahead of time, as moments of special interest and visibility in the community, proposed by UVT as part of the 2023 agenda and held under the banner "At UVT, culture is capital!".

These events are part of the "Timișoara 2023 - European Capital of Culture" Cultural Program, Oameni territory, Reflections station, financed by the Municipality of Timișoara through the Timișoara Project Center.