OBITUARY

We are very sad to make an announcement on the untimely passing of Professor Armen Saghatelyan – the founder and longstanding director of the Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies NAS RA, а renown scientist and a great man on October 8, 2019 in his 66th year after а long and severe disease. 

The civil funeral service will be held on October 10, from 18:00 to 20:00 in the LusAr Funeral Hall (Yerevan, G.Hasratian Street 29/6); funeral ceremony will be held on October 11, at 14:00.

Armen Saghatelyan was born on August 2, 1953 in Yerevan. 

In 1975 after graduating from Faculty of Geology to the Yerevan State University for 15 years he had been working in different organizations in the area of geo-prospecting, working his way up from an engineer to а chief of a geological party. 

In 1987 on a part-time basis he defended his candidate and then in 2000 his doctoral dissertations at the Institute of Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Crystallochemistry of Rare Elements (Moscow). In 2015 he was given the rank of Professor.

In 1989 Armen Saghatelyan started working at the Institute of Geological Sciences NAS RA as a principal researcher and then as head of laboratory of technochemistry.

Beginning from 1993 Professor Saghatelyan was the founding director of the Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studeis NAS RA, which due to his huge efforts became a research center of a national and international significance, where under his immediate direction was established a national science school in the area of environmental studies.

A.K Saghatelyan supervised a number of national and international themes, programs and projects (UNESCO, OSCE, NATO, USAID etc.).

Along with his main activities A.K.Saghatelyan was the expert of Supreme Council of RA Commission for Environmental Protection  and Natural Resource Conservation  Issues. (1991-1994), UN national expert (1996), Scientific Secretary of Expert Commission “Earth sciences” to the Ministry of Education and Science RA (1997-2008),  EU INTAS, then FP-7 Program expert on evaluation of international projects in the area “Earth sciences” (1998-2010),  member of Directors’ Panel of the Regional Ecological Center for the Caucasus (Georgia, Tbilisi) (2001-2002, 2005-2006), Chairman of a unit “Earth Science” of the expert commission to the State Committee for Science RA and the expert of the Council for Sustainable Development under the Prime-Minister RA.

From 2000 A.K Saghatelyan held a position of a chairman to the “Man and Biosphere” (MAB) National Committee to the Armenian Commission for UNESCO.
A.K.Saghatelyan was a lecturer at the Yerevan affiliation of the Moscow Modern State University, Yerevan State University and starting from 2011 he headed the Nature Protection and Nature Management Department  to the International Science and Education Center NAS RA.

Professor Saghatelyan was a full member of the International Academy of  Ecology and Life Protection Sciences and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences,  a member of the United Scientific Council on Fundamental Issues of Geography to  International Association of Academies of Sciences, Moscow, RF, UN “Earth Sciences”, the International Geological Union’s association “Medical Geology”, the American Chemical Society and a number of other professional organizations.

Professor Saghatelyan took an active part in different scientific meetings and made presentations to over 60 international  scientific conferences; he is the author and co-author of more than 180 scientific publications including 4 monographs and 6 teaching manuals; he was the Editor-in –Chief to 10 books of transactions and conference materials  and two editions of the Explanatory Dictionary of Ecological Terms in Armenian.

For his outstanding achievements at the national and international level Professor Saghatelyan was awarded with  St. George medal of IV Class  “Honor, Glory, Labor”, International Academic Rating of Popularity “Golden Fortune” (the Ukraine, 2004), nomination “The Leading Scientist of the World 2009” of the International Biographic Centre of Cambridge (Great Britain), a State Medal RA “Anania Shirakatsi” (2013).

The CENS staff deeply grieve for the death of Professor Armen Saghatelyan and extend their heartfelt condolences to his family members at this sad time.