In one of the rooms of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) in Vienna, the names of the female members of the Academy were recently immortalized around a huge painting depicting one of the first Meetings of the Academy (founded in 1847). The engraving of the names starts with the first elected woman Berta Karlik (1973) and reaches 2023. At the bottom right is the name of the President of the Interdisciplinary Center for Aristotle Studies, AUTh, Demetra Sfendoni-Mentzou, who is the only Greek female member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
The above initiative took place in the context of the celebration of 100 years since the election of the Austrian Physicist, Berta Karlik (1904–1990), the first female member of the Academy, in 1973. The artist who immortalized the names is Tatiana Lecomte, and the painting around from which the names are engraved depicts one of the first sessions of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where, as can be clearly seen, all the members are males.
