Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum, the most highly regarded society in this field, has admitted a new member from Poland: Prof. Piotr H. Skarżyński, MD, PhD.
The vote on new Polish CORLAS members took place during its annual meeting and scientific conference in Bern, Switzerland, on 25–28 August 2019. The process had begun three years earlier, when active Polish CORLAS members — Prof. Henryk Skarżyński, chairman of the Polish group, and the other members — asked more than a dozen Polish otorhinolaryngology researchers under 40, holding at least a habilitation, to present their scientific achievements.
A secret ballot based on these achievements selected five candidates for submission to a special CORLAS credentials committee. Following independent reviews commissioned by the CORLAS President and Secretary General, three Polish candidates advanced to the final vote and received General Assembly approval. Dr hab. Andrzej Sieśkiewicz, Associate Professor (Białystok), and Dr hab. Tomasz Zatoński, Associate Professor (Wrocław), also joined Poland’s representatives in CORLAS. The Collegium now has over 400 members from 50 countries.
Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum is a highly prestigious society founded by the distinguished otorhinolaryngologists and scientists Charles Emile Benjamins and Adriaan De Kleyn on 8 October 1926 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Established after the First World War, it aimed to restore scientific contacts lost during the war and foster cooperation and exchanges of knowledge and experience to advance European research.
Through its members’ mutual support, the Collegium survived economic and political crises while retaining its original character. Despite the growing number of international congresses and symposia, researchers devoted to science still need a free exchange of ideas. The Collegium’s scientific meetings demonstrate this. Nurturing friendship and mutual trust remains the society’s enduring purpose.