The council of the Academia Europaea announced that communication professor Manuel Castells will receive the 2011 Erasmus Medal.

The medal is given annually to one outstanding individual in recognition of personal and significant contribution to European science and scholarship and its international impact. The jury for Academia Europaea’s Social Sciences section selected Castells “for his brilliant and wide-ranging work on the transformation of society through the revolution of information and communication technologies, and for this understanding of the new communicative environment of social practices from a global perspective.”

"I feel truly rewarded for my work by the Erasmus Medal, because the esteem of my colleagues is my second-most important source of satisfaction and pride in my life – the first one is the appreciation of my students,” said Castells, also a University Professor and holder of the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology & Society.

Castells will also deliver the 2011 Erasmus Lecture at the opening ceremony of the annual conference. He is scheduled to speak and accept his award in September of 2011 during a ceremony at the Palace of Unesco in Paris.

“Because the European Academy is formed by the most distinguished scientists in all disciplines from the whole of Europe, this is particularly meaningful for me given the fact that I have spent most of my academic life in the United States,” Castells said. “This is a sign that science has no nationality. Our common territory is the search for truth."

He was given the Erasmus Medal for his work on the transformation of society by the revolution in information and communication technologies, as well as a systematic understanding of the new communication environment of social practices in a global perspective. He was also given praise for his book Communication Power and how it shows relationships between media and politics.

About Academia Europaea:
Academia Europaea is a European, non-governmental association acting as an Academy. Its members are scientists and scholars who collectively aim to promote learning, education and research. Founded in 1988, with more than 2,000 members that include leading experts from the physical sciences and technology, biological sciences and medicine, mathematics, the letters and humanities, social and cognitive sciences, economics and the law.

Academia Europaea 
Manuel Castells 
Previous Erasmus Medal Winners