The first sitting of the University of Malta’s Faculty Board of Science was held on the 17th September 1915. The Rector, Dr Enrico Magro, chaired that first meeting, with the other participating members being: Professor W.F. Nixon B.Sc., Arc.Sc. (Professor of Mathematics), Professor Roberto V. Galea L.S.&A. and Professor Themistocles Zammit C.M.G., M.D. (Professor of Chemistry), who was later appointed Dean.
The focal point of the Faculty of Science centenary celebrations is an extraordinary commemorative meeting of the Board which was held in the Rector’s Office at the Valletta Campus on the 17th September 2015 at 11:00.
Given the importance and significance of the occasion, the members present wore academic robes during the meeting. There was an introduction by the Rector, Professor Juanito Camilleri, and an address by the Dean, Professor Charles V.Sammut, presentation of the Minutes of the 17th September 1915 Meeting, a presentation by Professor Stanley Fiorini. A concluding message from the Minister for Education and Employment, the Hon. Evarist Bartolo, who was unable to attend, was read by the Dean, Professor Charles V Sammut. The meeting was adjourned to 17 September 2025.
The original hand written minutes were on display, along with a very rare copy of the earliest publication of a science text-book in the Maltese language. The book is an 800-page volume entitled Aritmetica bil-Malti w bl-Ingliż, written by Tommaso Vella and published in 1913.
The Faculty of Science continues to fulfill its primary roles of teaching and research by producing some excellent Maltese and international science graduates and an ever-increasing number of high caliber research publications. The Faculty now consists of six departments, the latest, which was officially declared on this occasion, is the Department of Geosciences. This department, which now has the Faculty of Science’s first female Head of Department, Dr Pauline Galea, Malta’s leading seismologist, originated from the Department of Physics and the former Physical Oceanography Unit. The Faculty has been awarded 5.6 million Euro in ERDF funding for six projects entailing state-of-the-art laboratory facilities. All research laboratories are complete and operational with the exception of two which will be ready in December.