Mart Noorma was awarded the President of the Republic’s Educational Award of the Cultural Foundation

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves presented the 2013 President of the Republic Educational Award of the Cultural Foundation and the special award in sciences yesterday at the Office of the President. The Supervisory Board of the Cultural Foundation nominated Mart Noorma, Senior Lecturer at the University of Tartu and Project Manager of the student satellite EstCube-1, for the Educational Award.

“One of the main qualities of a good teacher is to inspire curiosity in the students and to make their journey towards new knowledge and skills as exciting as possible. You have succeeded in that,” said President Toomas Hendrik Ilves when giving this year’s educational awards to the initiator of the Estonian student satellite programme Mart Noorma, the long-time violin teacher Tiiu Peäske and teacher of economics Epp Vodja. The President’s special award in sciences was given to physicist Jaan Kalda.

“This is also an acknowledgement of my colleagues and students with whom I have led the educational projects and introduced the high level of Estonian education to the world," said Mart Noorma, who received the Educational Award. He added that it is their joint achievement.

Mart Noorma is Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Tartu, Senior Lecturer in Optical Meteorology, and Senior Research Fellow at Tartu Observatory. He is the initiator and leader of the Estonian student satellite programme EstCube-1. He has been awarded V Class Order of the White Star (2012), Award for Popularization of Estonian Science (2012), and the award “Ökul” for being a proponent of science media. As a result of the referendum carried out on the Internet, Mart Noorma’s footprints were added to the alley of pioneers of Tartu in 2013.

The Educational Award, established in 2003, is meant for people related to education at all levels of studies. Those awarded should have outstanding results in Estonian educational life as a teacher, a lecturer, a head of an educational institution, an employee in an educational institution, a composer of study books and methodical materials, an initiator and implementer of education-related practical innovations, or an educational officer working towards improving education policy.

The Supervisory Board of the Cultural Foundation gives out three educational awards in the amount of EUR 4,800 (Mart Noorma), EUR 3,500 (Tiiu Peäske) and EUR 2,900 (Epp Vodja), which are financed by Danske Bank. The special award in sciences, in the amount of EUR 3,900 (Jaan Kalda), is financed by Skype Estonia.