Count Lajos Batthyány Award E. Sylvester Vizi

This Year’s Batthyány Foundation Prize Awarded to Professor E. Sylvester Vizi

Dániel Deme 2023.10.07.

E. Vizi Szilveszter (L), Teri Tordai (C), and Eszter Vitályos, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. PhotoMTI/Lajos Soós

Szilveszter E. Vizi, two-time Széchenyi Prize-winning Hungarian physician, pharmacologist, and former president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, received this year’s Count Lajos Batthyány Prize. Teri Tordai, Kossuth and Jászai Mari Prize-winning actress, received the Count Antónia Zichy Prize at the Hungarian Batthyány Foundation’s event on Friday at the Fiumei út cemetery in Budapest. Professor Vizi is the President of the Friends of Hungary Foundation, publisher of Hungary Today.

“We, who are here today, have inherited a lot, and if we have a national heritage, there must be heirs,” said Eszter Vitályos, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (KIM), at the event marking the Arad Martyrs’ Memorial Day.

“There are heirs who are worthy of the goods of our glorious homeland. Those who have dedicated their lives and work to enrich the treasure they have received, to use knowledge for the benefit of the public and to strengthen faith. They are the ones we reward today,” said Vitályos.
Margit Batthyány-Schmidt, President of the Hungarian Batthyány Foundation, said that the foundation had awarded the Count Lajos Batthyány and Count Antónia Zichy awards for the fourth time to people who respond to the social, economic, and political challenges of our time in a practical and pragmatic way, in proportion to opportunities and needs.

Photo: MTI/Soós Lajos

Fact

The Hungarian Batthyány Foundation – named after Prime Minister Lajos Count Batthyány and his wife, Count Antonia Zichy – supports all outstanding and exemplary activities or heroic deeds that respond to the social, economic, and political challenges of our time in a pragmatic way in proportion to opportunities and necessities. In this way, the Hungarian nation, its success and international recognition, allow for the preservation and renewal of farming traditions, the unity of small communities and families, the preservation of religious and universal values, the promotion of science, culture, art, and the education and development of art and culture. In doing so, they will also contribute to the betterment of the Hungarian nation.

In his tribute, Zoltán Balog, Reformed Bishop and patron of the award, recalled that Szilveszter Vizi E. Vizi made a lasting contribution as President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He added that he is a scientist who knows that omniscience is not an individual privilege, but a divine gift that can only achieve its purpose if it is shared with others.

Teri Tordai (L2), E. Sylvester Vizi (L3), Eszter Vitályos, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, award recipient (R2), Margit Batthyány-Schmidt, President of the Hungarian Batthyány Foundation (j), and Katalin Bogyay, Ambassador, President of the Hungarian United Nations Association, the 2021. (L) Photo: MTI/Lajos Soós

Ambassador Katalin Bogyay, President of the Hungarian UN Society, said that the creation and maintenance of a prize is a personal matter. It keeps an idea alive, it reflects the thoughts, beliefs, and behavior of the people whose names it bears and preserves them in everyday life,” she said.
This year, the foundation also presented posthumous awards to Miklós Duray (1945-2022), a Hungarian politician and writer from Slovakia, and Csilla von Boeselager (1941-1994), a Hungarian-born chemist and marketing expert.
The Hungarian Batthyány Foundation awarded the 2019 Count Lajos Batthyány and Count Antónia Zichy prizes for the fourth time this year.

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Featured Photo: MTI/Soós Lajos