On October 4, 2021, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the award ceremony by the FNRS (Belgian National Foundation for Scientific Research) of five distinguished University professors, from the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles and five from Flanders), research professors who, each in his own field, made it possible to expand the frontiers of knowledge.
The award ceremony was attended by the King of Belgium Philip, politicians and academics, Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium, as well as students from various universities.
Mr. V. Saroglou has studied theology (Athens), religious sciences, philosophy, and psychology (Louvain), has been a visiting professor or researcher in France (Lille) and America (College of William & Mary, Arizona State University, New York University ) as well as president of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion and the Académie Internationale des Sciences Religieuses, (other former presidents from the Orthodox area: Prof. Nikos Nisiotis and Metropolitan Damaskinos of Switzerland ), correlation with personality psychology as well as social, ethical and intercultural psychology.
The official announcement of the FNRS, based on the work of the international multi-member interdisciplinary committee that awarded this award, announces the reasons:
“These scientific awards (Prix Quinquennaux du FNRS), the highest prestige in the country, are awarded every five years. Two of them concern the biomedical sciences, two concern the positive sciences, and one the humanities and social sciences. The award for the humanities and social sciences was awarded to the Greek Professor of Psychology of Religion at the University of Louvain (Louvain-La-Neuve) Mr. Vassilios Saroglou.”
“In the field of Psychology, Professor Saroglou stands out for the way in which he was able to gather different streams of thought, thus creating a multidisciplinary field of research and, in this way, examining a series of relevant and fundamental questions concerning society in general. His reputation is based not only on his outstanding profile of scientific publications but also on his work in international organizations and on his distinguished and wide-ranging leadership and influence as an intellectual. His work, driven by the development of intercultural psychology of religions, is recognized as bold and innovative in terms of meeting the experimental methodological approach followed by personality psychologists and social psychologists with the historical and cultural approach, specializing in the sciences of religions “.
