Photos by Pierre Sammut (DOI)
Dr David Mifsud and Professor Godfrey A. Pirotta were, on 13 December, made Members of the National Order of Merit by the President of the Republic Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as part of the Gieħ ir-Repubblika Honours. Membership of the Order of Merit is conferred on Maltese citizens who have distinguished themselves in the service of Malta generally or in some specialized field.
Congratulations to both!
Professor Godfrey A. Pirotta
Born in Gzira in 1947, Godfrey Pirotta is renowned for his outstanding contribution in the fields of education and public policy both in Malta and abroad. He studied at the St Joseph Technical School and is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford (Social Studies), Reading (Political Studies), and Bath from where he obtained his Ph.D in Social sciences. In his teens he helped found the Gzira Civic Committee. In 1973, Pirotta co-founded the Istitut Malti għall-Edukazzjoni fil-Politika u l-Ekonomija and in 1980 he founded the Consumer Protection Association and served as a member of the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on consumer affairs. He joined the University of Malta in 1982 and is currently a professor in Government and Policy Studies.
Professor Pirotta is also a founding member of the Department of Public Policy and a former Head of Department. He sat on the Board of IPAM since its foundation and was its director from 2009 until last June. A constant contributor to adult and civic education at several levels, he has lectured at universities across the globe. He has authored three books on the history of Maltese governing institutions and other studies on public policy and public administration. In 1994 he co-founded the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and helped pioneer the study of public policy in micro-states. He sits on the advisory board of international policy studies institutions and has been a strong contributor to Mediterranean affairs starting from the CSSE’s Mediterranean Process in 1979 to the present. In 2011 he established, in partnership with the International Policy Leadership Association (IPLI), The Malta Forum on Governance in the Mediterranean and currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Anna Lindh Foundation for inter-cultural dialogue and serves as Malta’s non-resident Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Dr David Mifsud
Born in 1971, David Mifsud has distinguished himself for his accomplishments in the biological sciences particularly in the field of entomology and the preservation of honeybees. Mifsud graduated with B,Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Malta and pursued his studies in Basel, Switzerland, where he earned a Ph.D. in Zoology in 2001. He works as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malta and is the President of the Entomological Society of Malta and founder of the Association of Maltese Apiculturists. He dedicating most of his life for the study of insects. Mifsud has contributed in studies to better understand the decline in honeybee populations and was instrumental in coordinating meetings between European Beekeeping Associations and the European Commissioners responsible for Health which were fundamental for the banning of harmful insecticides to honeybees. He published more than 150 papers in scientific journals, mostly related to biodiversity studies in Malta. He provided detailed information on more than 1,800 living organisms of which almost 600 species were new records for the Maltese Islands. He described over 50 new species of insects to science. David Mifsud is also the editor of a peer-reviewed scientific journal entitled Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Malta, devoted to the study of insects in Malta. In the eight volumes published to-date, he managed to get together 95 scientists from all over the world to work on Maltese insects. This work generated more than 130 publications providing information on more than 1,500 species of insects occurring in the Maltese archipelago.