By Lian Mlodzienski
News Editor

ESU’s Professor Kurt Wimer International Lecture Series will be hosting Dr. Zygimantas Pavilionis, the Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States, on Wednesday, September 24.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Niedbala Auditorium of the Hoeffner Science and Technology Center at 7:00 PM.

Named in honor of ESU’s former chair of the social sciences department but now known as the political science department, the Kurt Wimer International Lecture Series involves semi-annual lectures on foreign and international affairs by invited speakers and experts.

Some previous speakers have been Jonas Hafström, who was the Swedish Ambassador to the United States, Friis Arne Peterson, who was the Ambassador from Denmark, and Dr. Margaret G. Hermann, who is the director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Ambassador Pavilionis’ lecture entitled “Lithuania: The Start-up Nation” will discuss the high-tech developments in Lithuania, entrepreneurship, and the crisis in Ukraine.

Focused on his country’s accession from the European Union and transatlantic relations, Ambassador Pavilionis is a diplomat who became ambassador in August of 2010.

Prior to becoming Lithuania’s ambassador, Pavilionis joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993 and worked in the Western Europe Division as Third Secretary.

From 1994 to 1995, he was the Assistant Director of Policy, and then he moved to the Department of Political Cooperation of the Ministry of European Integration.

He later worked in Brussels, Belgium, at the Lithuanian Permanent Mission from 1999 to 2002.

In 2002 he was promoted to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ European Integration Department until 2004.

Recently, he served as Ambassador-At-Large and Chief Coordinator for Lithuania’s Presidency of Community of Democracies and Chief Coordinator for the Transatlantic Cooperation and Security Policy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Kurt Wimer International Lecture Series is sponsored by the office of the president at ESU.

For more information, assistance, or special accommodations, please contact Dr. Leif Johan Eliasson at 570-422-3250.

Email Lian at:
lmlodzien1@live.esu.edu