Lauritz Meltzer (1861-1943) left a lasting legacy to the Bergen region and certainly to higher education. He may have been one of the instrumental forces behind the establishment of the University of Bergen (UiB) in 1946. He left most of his vast fortune in a fund to support research at higher education institutions. The fund is administered by the Research Department at UiB.
In addition to specific prizes, the Meltzer fund supports numerous research activities at the university every year. In 2003, the total amount of funding support was nearly 11 million NOK. Activities covered include scholarships and student project funding as well as research projects (25 in 2003).
There are a number of specific Meltzer prizes. An honorary prize of 200 000NOK is awarded to an exceptional researcher every five years. There is an annual prize to promising young scientists as well as an annual prize for research dissemination. The prizes are awarded at an annual dinner held on Meltzer’s birthday, 8 March.
This year’s prize to young scientists was awarded to two young researchers at UiB, Anne Elisabeth Christensen and Kjellmar Oksavik. Christensen’s work is with cyclic AMP, and Oksavik is a Space Physicist. This year’s dissemination prize was awarded to Art Historian, Henrik von Achen, who works with the cultural history department of Bergen Museum. This year the honorary Meltzer prize was also awarded, to Holger Ursin. Ursin has an impressive publication record. He was the first professor of psychology who had a medical background, and was thus very instrumental in building bridges between the medical and psychology faculties.
In their acceptance speeches the prize winners underlined a number of important features about the UiB working and research environment: good fellowship, bridge building between academic disciplines, multi-disciplinary work, co-operation and collaboration, and good support from the university. Ursin also underlined the importance of researcher recruitment and training for the future of research at the university.