Professor of Vilnius University was elected as a member of the Swedish Academy

This week, when the Nobel Prize laureate has been announced, Vilnius University has received another piece of good news: The Swedish Academy (Svenska Akademien) which is responsible for the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature has elected a new member. This new member is Tomas Riad, professor of the Department of Scandinavian Languages at Stockholm University.

Professor has for many years cooperated with the Centre of Scandinavian Studies at Vilnius University as a visiting professor. Since 1999 he has been giving lectures and seminars for the students of Vilnius University, supervising a number of Bachelor and Master thesis, and is at the moment a supervisor for one doctoral thesis. He is also the coordinator for the Visby Program, a trilateral academic exchange project between Lithuanian, Russian and Swedish scholars.

Tomas Riad received his doctoral degree in Scandinavian philology from Stockholm University in 1992. He has published a significant number of articles and books on different issues of linguistics and metrics, and has been a coordinator for many scholarly projects. In the spring of 2011 he was a visiting professor at University of Vincennes in Saint-Denis (Paris). When Tomas Riad was introduced for the Swedish public as the new member of the Swedish Academy, the name of Vilnius University was also often mentioned.

The Swedish Academy is an independent cultural institution, the task of which is to advance Swedish language and literature. It issues the academic dictionary and grammar of the Swedish language and is responsible for a number of different awards. The Academy has awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901. The Academy consists of eighteen members who are elected for life. All the members are personalities well known for the Swedish public, and the process of their election is followed closely throughout Sweden. Professor Tomas Riad has replaced the recently deceased writer Birgitta Trotzig. He will officially step into office during the official ceremony of the Swedish Academy on the 20^th of December this year.