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WHAT IS BEHIND THE ACADEMIC ELECTION?
the regular members to become members ofthe Hungarian Academy of Sciences
(henceforth Academy). (3) Ihe number of the members under the age of 70
cannot exceed 200, and the total number of regular members cannot exceed
365. (4) During the election of external members it should be taken into
consideration that the total number of external members under the age of 70
should stay below 70 persons. (5) The overall number of the electable candidates
to become honorary members at the Academy’s election meeting should not
exceed 11 persons.'?®
At the Academy’s 186th General Meeting, by the guiding principles
established by the Assembly of Academics, the most important aspects of the
election of new members are the academic achievement and the traditional
academical values like international recognition, school establishing activities,
and long-term outstanding professional efficiency.'*’ These principles specially
define the detailed requirements of achieving different classes and exhaustively
list the conditions of earning the titles of full, correspondent, external and
honorary membership. Based on these, full membership can be given to a
Hungarian citizen who has already been given the correspondent member title
and who has achieved significant scientific results after receiving the
correspondent status. An external member can be the scientist who habitually
lives outside of the borders of Hungary, who is not or not only a Hungarian
citizen but identifies himself or herself as Hungarian and masters his or her
science at high standards in a constitutive and acknowledged way while also
maintains a close relationship with the Hungarian scientific scene. Honorary
member can be a foreigner (not Hungarian citizen or dual citizen, as well as
Hungarian citizen living in a foreign country) scientist who is practicing his
or her expertise in an internationally significant way at high standards so he
or she can rightfully expect the special appreciation of the Hungarian
academics.'?®
The first step in the process of becoming a member of the Academy is a letter
of recommendation. In fact “[...] a recommendation of written form of the
members of the Academy is needed, and must be handed in before the deadline
set by the members of the chairmanship, to the assigned scientific department.”1®°
186 http://mta.hu/data/dokumentumok/hatteranyagok/akademikusvalasztas/2016_evi_
akademikusvalasztas_elj_szab.pdf (accessed 30 May 2017).
http://mta.hu/mta_hirei/akademikusvalasztas-nyilvanosak-az-akademiai-tagajanlasok-105782
(accessed 30 May 2017).
188 Tbidem.
18 http://mta.hu/data/dokumentumok/hatteranyagok/akademikusvalasztas/2016_evi_
akademikusvalasztas_elj_szab.pdf (accessed 30 May 2017).
187