Helene Glykatzi-Ahrweiler has a constant desire to communicate with young children and as she tells ImpacTalk she stands up for them urging them "to have their feet firmly on the ground and their eyes in the sky". "Everything I’ve achieved throughout my life journey, everything I dreamed of, was made possible because I knew that nothing was impossible. That is why I consider it important to remain authentic in life. History is not a profession for me; it's an experience", she tells ImpacTalk.
Helene Glykatzi - Ahrweiler was born in Athens, in 1926. She is a historian and an academic Byzantinologist. After studying at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens, she worked at the Centre for Asia Minor Studies and later continued her studies in Paris. She specialised in the study of the world of Eastern Christianity as well as in the state and society of the Byzantine Empire. In 1955 she was appointed to the National Centre for Scientific Research of France and in 1964 became its director. In 1967 she became the first female President of the Department of History at the Sorbonne University and in 1976, she was elected Rector of the University. During her many years of academic career she rose to senior positions and received many international awards. She is an honorary member of the Academy of Athens, the French Academy, the British Academy, the Arts and Cultures of Belgium, Berlin and Bulgaria. She has also served as president of the Georges Pompidou Centre (Beaubourg). As a Byzantine scholar, she has offered a rich literary work in the global academic community. She is now serving as President of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi. Her research and work on the Byzantine era is so crucial that the state of knowledge of Byzantium is internationally divided into pre-Ahrweiler and post-Ahrweiler periods.
