Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary European Studies
Confidential nominations from UACES members, or groups of members (Individual or Student members only), are now invited for a future UACES Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations will be received and considered by a jury delegated by the UACES Committee, and confidential soundings may be taken as appropriate with other longstanding UACES members, especially former officers of the Association, before the Award is made.
The criteria on which an Award will be granted relate to the overall intellectual and personal contribution which a person has made through a career working in European Studies, through teaching, research and scholarship, and - where appropriate - through related political/professional work in the broadest sense. The person should have a demonstrable track record of achievement and contribution to European Studies. It is anticipated that the UACES Award will be made to a person who has been involved with the Association in some way.
Regard will be had, where appropriate, to the fact that an individual has been nominated by many of their colleagues and peers, but this process should not be treated as a numerical exercise or an election.
Alan Milward
![]() Frances Lynch, collecting the award on behalf of her husband, from Stephen Wall |
An award for 'Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary European Studies' was presented to Professor Alan Milward, Professor Emeritus of Economic History, London School of Economics. The presentation was made at the UACES Annual Conference in Edinburgh, UK, 2008.
Perhaps the leading EU historian, Alan S. Milward’s career has culminated as Professor Emeritus at the European University Institute, Florence and Official Historian of Her Majesty's Government after a glittering career. His many publications include at least two landmark books in European studies, The Frontier of National Sovereignty and, perhaps most famously, The European Rescue of the Nation State. His published works while at the Cabinet Office included volume one of UK Accession to the European Communities and he was working on volumes 2 and 3 when he had to resign from his post due to ill health. Professor Milward has been a devoted inter-disciplinary scholar determined to bring history and the social sciences together.
William Paterson
Professor William Paterson began his academic career as a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen and later moved to the University of Warwick as a Volkswagen Lecturer where, after a number of years, he was promoted to a Professorship in Politics. In 1990 Prof. Paterson returned to Scotland and to the University of Edinburgh where he was appointed Salvesen Professor of European Institutions and Director of its Europa Institute. He served on the UACES Committee and was Chair of UACES from 1989-1994 and co founded the Association for the Study of German Politics in 1974.
![]() William Paterson flanked by Alex Warleigh-Lack & John Kerr |
In 1994 Professor Paterson came south to Birmingham to direct the Institute for German Studies. Under his leadership, the Institute has developed into a dedicated centre of research excellence, with a thriving postgraduate community, which makes a major contribution to British-German relations and policy debates.
Professor Paterson has written or edited over twenty books and a large number of academic papers on European and German issues; he was a founding co-editor of German Politics (1992-2002) and has been co-editor of JCMS since 2003. He is a Director of the Königswinter Conference (a series of annual bilateral British-German conferences which has been meeting since 1950) and a member of the Advisory Council (Beirat) of the Humboldt University's Centre for British Studies. In March 2005, Professor Paterson was appointed Chairman of the German-British Forum in succession to Lord Hurd of Westwell. He also served as Chair of 'The One Europe or Several?' ESRC Programme in succession to Lord Dahrendorf (2001-2003). This was a programme which had been initiated by him during his period on the ESRC Research Priorities Board(1995-1999).
In recognition of his ‘outstanding contribution to British-German relations’, Professor Paterson was awarded the German Order of Merit in March 1999. In June 1999 he was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for ‘scholarship in German studies’.
Elizabeth Meehan
At the first session of the Conference, we made a special award for her lifetime contribution to European Studies on the island of Ireland to Professor Emerita Elizabeth Meehan, who has recently retired as the founding Director of the Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research at Queen’s University Belfast. Elizabeth Meehan began her career in the Diplomatic Service, taking leave to complete a doctoral thesis at Nuffield College Oxford on employment equality for women. Within twelve years, when she accepted a chair at Queen’s University Belfast, she became the first female professor of politics in the UK in 1991. Professor Meehan’s work on European citizenship was groundbreaking and timely in the early 1990s and its recent updating shows that she is still a leading figure in this area. Similarly, her work on multilevel governance was among the first to introduce a concept which has since become widely accepted and understood in fields of political practice and academia.
![]() Elizabeth Meehan |
Helen Wallace & William Wallace
At the conference dinner, the UACES 2006 Lifetime Award for contribution to European Studies was made to Professor Helen Wallace, CMG, recently retired from the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute and Lord William Wallace of Saltaire, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on International Affairs in the House of Lords, and recently retired from a Chair at the London School of Economics.
![]() William Wallace with John Kerr |
William Wallace has been a devoted and much admired teacher. He has supervised the theses of countless students, many of whom went on to pursue successful academic (and political) careers (e.g. Olli Rehn, now a European Commissioner, and Alexander Stubb MEP). Both he and Helen have also taught students about the EU in other contexts: e.g. Andrew Moravcsik and Jose-Manuel Barroso. William was Director of Studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, 1978-90, the longest serving Director of Studies aside from Arnold Toynbee 1929-1956. He is generally held to have been very successful in this role, and he has remained closely involved in Chatham House activities since then.
![]() Helen Wallace |
It has been important to UACES to honour Helen and William Wallace both separately, and together. Wherever they have worked, and wherever they have gone to speak or teach or write, Helen and William Wallace have been consistently generous with their time and support for other scholars, especially younger scholars, and in particular, and as a crucial expression of their ‘human interest’, both have always remained interested in the ‘whole person’. Scholars may be scholars, but they are also people.
John Pinder
![]() John Pinder |
The inaugural award for 'Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary European Studies' was presented to Professor John Pinder, Chairman of the Federal Trust for Education and Research. The presentation was made at the UACES Annual Conference in Zagreb, Croatia, 2005.
The Lifetime Award Jury had consulted a wide range of 'UACES Luminaries', and a shortlist was suggested. While there were kind words about the influence and importance of all the names raised, there was unanimous and heartfelt approval of John Pinder, for his intellectual influence, his unquenchable optimism and his commitment, as one person put it 'in the dark years'. The Lifetime Achievement Award was warmly presented to Professor Pinder, who thanked the audience with a most enlightening talk about his experiences as a main protagonist of the integration process in Europe.







