University of Malta Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella, was recently awarded the Buonamico Award by Maltese President, H.E. Dr George Vella, for his insistence on the importance of education.
He was one of three recipients of the award this year, with the other two being well-known biologist and Senior Fellow at the Faculty of Science, Prof. Victor Axiak and Joint Managing Director of Green Skip Services Ltd, Mrs Mary Gaerty.
The seventh edition of the Buonamico Award Ceremony was organised by the Environment & Resources Authority (ERA).
The award is inspired by Giovanni Francesco Buonamico, a 17th century Maltese traveller, poet, doctor and naturalist.
Prof. Vella’s journey at the University of Malta started with him being a student and graduating with a B.Sc. in 1971 and a M.Sc. in 1975.He then joined the University of Maltta in 1987 to research the area of environmental chemistry, where he served as the Head of the Department of Chemistry and later as the Dean of the Faculty of Science.
After serving as a Pro-Rector for ten years, Prof Vella was elected as the University's 81st Rector in 2016 and was subsequently re-elected for another five year term in 2021.
Against the highly-competitive background of higher education in Malta, Prof. Vella has often quoted the University’s “commitment to a quality education that puts students at the centre of learning; support for more and better research and innovation and sustained commitment to turn research results into enterprise of a commercial and social value.”
He has also been instrumental in the establishment of alliances with numerous universities across the globe, with SEA-EU being the most recent one, witnessed the University repeatedly improving in its rankings, and participated in the signing of many agreements with other entities, local and otherwise.
A list of the past recipients of the award can be found online.