By the end of 2024, a Center of Excellence for the Theragnosis of cancer will be in operation at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), one of the largest research centers in Greece, with an estimated cost of more than €30 million.

According to the NHRF’s Director and Chairman of the Board, Professor Dimosthenis Sarigiannis, the Center of Excellence, which will be unique in its kind not only for Greece, but also for the whole of SE Europe, thanks to its state-of-the-art equipment, will be fully completed by 2025, but will be already in operation by the end of 2024.

Speaking to television host Christina Tsormpa, Pr. Sarigiannis also explained that Theragnosis combines cutting-edge technology with clinical practice and the treatment of diseases such as cancer. It has the tools to achieve precise detection and creates treatment regimens that accurately target the point at which cancer and other diseases are detected. As he stated, NHRF’s team is trying "to combine different technologies, especially because of the technology of theragnosis, that will allow [them] to diagnose exactly where the problem lies and, at simultaneously, use that same tool to treat the disease in a highly targeted way.

As he also said, the cost of the project exceeds the sum of €30 million and has already been secured with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Fund and the European Investment Bank. It will be combined with the integrated cancer research centre that is already operating as part of the NHRF. The integrated Cancer Centre at the NHRF will enhance the collaboration between researchers, hospital clinicians and patients, aided among else by the research center’s location in the heart of Athens, within a short distance from some of the country's major hospitals. This new addition is expected to add to the National Hellenic Research Foundation’s position as a point of reference for Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.

Read also via Greek News Agenda: "Athena" Research Center’s new Robotics Unit to specialize in precision medicine, agri-food, drones and industrial production services; Students from 27 countries at international program AUTh Medical School

The post Center of Excellence for the Theragnosis of cancer at NHRF by 2025 appeared first on Greek News Agenda.

Libre Space Foundation (LSF) is a non-profit foundation registered since 2015 in Greece from the creators of the SatNOGS project, an Open Source global network of satellite ground-stations. LSF’s aim is to promote, advance and develop free and open source technologies and knowledge for space. To that effect, they design and deliver space related projects ranging from Ground Station equipment, to global monitoring Networks and satellite missions. Their team, mostly comprised of engineers, builds microsatellites, nanosatellites, and picosatellites; thanks to the know-how they have developed and their dedication to advancing open-source technology, the team's projects have received funding from European programs, such as Horizon 2020, foundations such as the New York-based Sloan Foundation, and private businesses.

In 2018, taking on a project that begun at the University of Patras, LSF built UPSat, the first open-source hardware and software satellite in the world. Since then, they have designed and developed the QUBIK series of PocketQubes -a type of miniaturized satellite for space research- built QUBIK-1, 2 (2021) and sent to space QUBIK-3 & 4 (2022).

In addition, Libre Space Foundation has established a series of groundbreaking collaborations with the European Space Agency (ESA). LSF has developed the world's largest satellite data reception network and is preparing to place its technology on the top floor of "Ariane 6", Europe's latest rocket - in its first flight, scheduled for early 2024.

With a dedicated core team of 15 individuals and an extensive network of volunteer collaborators that spans the scientific spectrum, LSF has recently taken on a new ESA project, 'PHASMA'. With substantial contract valued at €2 million, the project will launch the 'Phasma' 1, 2 and 3 nanosatellites into space, in order to conduct a series of experiments on the electromagnetic spectrum, as its vice-president Lefteris Kosmas explained in an interview to Alexandra Gouta for the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

These experiments are aimed at facilitating both space travel – since they may provide information on how to make spacecraft navigation to the Moon more accurate, but, more importantly they can improve everyday life down on Earth: their findings can be used to improve the operation of radio and television signals, detecting interferences and disruptions, and can record how the ionosphere interacts with Space and how phenomena such as the Northern Lights can affect the different frequencies- causing GPS systems to crash, for example.

Kosmas further commented: “in January 2015, when we started working as volunteers on the Libre Space Foundation idea, we couldn't imagine where it would take us in the future. We struggled a lot and faced huge difficulties. I think LSF has reached the point of bidding for and taking on ESA or Horizon projects, thanks to the hard work, diligence and exceptional quality of our engineers. We have a lot of passion, but also an obsession with open software, which can be seen in the organization's manifesto, where it is stated - as in the Outer Space Treaty, under the auspices of the United Nations - that Space should be open to everyone and everything, what happens up there is for the benefit of humanity as a whole. There are times when I still can't believe that something we've created is up there in space. In October 2022, when the “Picobus” system was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, I remember holding my daughter, then a few months old, and she lifted her little hand up, pointing to the live link at the rocket and exclaiming with enthusiasm "there it goes!" Such moments are priceless."

Pierros Papadeas, CEO of LSF further explains the Phasma project: "The experiments that will be conducted within the frame Phasma will analyze the spectrum of terrestrial radio frequency emissions using artificial intelligence. Our purpose is to calculate and quantify the worldwide use of spectrum, identify sources of interference and detect disruptions of broadcast signals. Also, these experiments, will be monitor and analyze signal emissions from other satellites, thus contributing to the easier identification of a satellite and its rapid location. These technologies are particularly important, as both the immediate identification of a satellite, its early detection, and its continuous monitoring contribute decisively to the success of a mission in Space."

In addition, the three satellites will be used to study the dispersion and propagation of signals in the ionosphere and to analyze navigation systems such as GPS, the European Gallileo, the Chinese BaiDu and the Russian GLONASS.

With this project, the LSF aims "not only to strengthen and expand the possibilities of open software, but also to give Greece a key role in technological developments, contributing to the creation of a sustainable and strong space ecosystem in the country", stressed Manthos Papamattheiou, president of the LSF.

To date, the LSF team have implemented 12 projects, including the following:

SatNOGS: the world's largest network of ground satellite stations, with over 400 participating stations in over 50 countries, is an open-source network of satellite ground stations; a modular stack, built from readily available and affordable tools and resources, enables communication with and observation of satellites and providing to anyone who wants it - whether universities, organizations, radio amateurs or space enthusiasts - plans and instructions for antenna systems and establishment of satellite earth stations.

SIDLOC (Spacecraft Identification and Localization) is a project funded by the European Space Agency, an ARTES activity developed by Libre Space Foundation and FORTH. SIDLOC is under active development, and its goal is to create a proposed standard of identification and localization for satellites and spacecraft. This is the system that is planned to be placed on the top floor of the Ariane 6 rocket, an ESA project.

SatNOGS-COMMS (Advanced Communication and Signal Analysis Subsystem for CubeSat-class satellites) a versatile telecommunications solution suitable for nano-satellites and CubeSats, operating in UHF and S-band and featuring tight integration with the SatNOGS Network and is also an ESA-funded project.

Cronos is a hybrid-fueled sounding rocket engineered by White Noise (a team of University students) in close collaboration with and under the auspices of Libre Space Foundation. The primary aim of the project Cronos is to become the test platform for exploring future possibilities of building more advanced rockets, capable of reaching higher altitudes, designed and manufactured in a collaborative and participatory way. It is a project designed and manufactured in an open and participatory manner.

and PICOBUS a PocketQube deployer built by Libre Space Foundation. It is the first open-source hardware satellite deployer and it can successfully hold and deploy in orbit, up to 8 PocketQube Units (each PocketQube unit measures 5cm x 5cm x 5cm and weighs less than 250gr each). The PICOBUS deployer is part of the QUBIK project on which the Libre Space Foundation has been working for years.

I.L. with infromation from Athens-Macedonian News Agency and Libre Space Foundation

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The web portal Study in Greece is campaigning for the promotion and international visibility of Greek Universities and the comparative educational advantages of our country. In particular, the campaign focuses on the foreign language study programs that Greek Universities offer to Greek and international students. The initiative is supported by the General Secretariat of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In this context, a number of educational programs and actions are presented in detail on a regular basis, such as undergraduate and postgraduate programs, summer schools etc, to inform international students about the many foreign language options offered by Greek Universities.

Study in Greece interviewed Professor Christos Tsatsanis, Coordinator of the International Program of Medicine offered at the University of Crete (UOC) about the program, its features and what it has to offer to international students.

Christos Tsatsanis is Professor of Clinical Chemistry at the Department of Laboratory Medicine of the University of Crete, where he coordinates of the undergraduate International Program in Medicine. He is also a Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation of Research and Technology Greece (FORTH) in the field of immunology, where he is a Group leader, with his lab analyzing mechanisms regulating activation and inactivation of macrophages at the level of signal transduction, cell metabolism and epigenetics.

Mr Tsatsanis, please present to us the brand new undergraduate International Program in Medicine offered by the University of Crete.

The University of Crete, School of Medicine, has been successfully training medical doctors for the last 40 years, reaching excellence in medical training and research. Over the years, the school of medicine has successfully prepared its students to become effective and reliable professionals internationally. This hard work is reflected in the rankings of the University of Crete School of Medicine. Based on this expertise, we have now launched a new, English-taught Program in Medicine, aiming to provide state-of-the-art medical training to students from all over the world.

Its structure is the same as the one of the Greek program that successfully runs to date. This is a 6-year curriculum, divided into 12 semesters. The program is organized in three study cycles, the basic science cycle (1st - 4th semester), the pre-clinical cycle (5th - 8th semester) and the clinical cycle (9th -12th semester), the latter solely focusing on clinical hands-on training.

The basic cycle includes courses such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, biology and other, which function as pillars to build upon the medical knowledge that will be further developed through the preclinical cycle courses. During this cycle, and as soon as the first year of studies, medical students have the opportunity to experience clinical practice through the course on Introduction to public health, where students receive their first clinical training in primary care centers.

Starting in the fifth semester, students enter the pre-clinical stage of the studies, which is the bridge between the basic and the clinical cycles. The first part of the pre-clinical cycle includes topics that offer knowledge and skills necessary for the clinical courses, such as Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, Laboratory Medicine, a course aiming to introduce students into solving clinical problems with the help of laboratory analyses using problem-based learning approach, and the introduction to Clinical Medicine, being the first hands-on clinical course on physical examination of the patient. 

The second part of the pre-clinical cycle includes most of the theoretical clinical subjects such as Internal Medicine, Surgery, Neurology, Radiology-Medical imaging, Pediatrics etc, providing the necessary foundation for the clinical clerkships.

In the final two years of the studies, medical students are immersed into the clinical cycle of the studies, which is based on clinical clerkships in all clinics of the University Hospital, a 700-bed University hospital that offers state of the art clinical care and training to students and residents. The first part, of the clinical training  comprises of the two core clinical clerkships in Internal Medicine and Surgery, each lasting 16 weeks (in semesters 9 and 10 respectively) followed by  the clinical clerkships in all other medical specialties during the 11th and 12th semesters.

A fundamental element of the Undergraduate Studies Program is the existence of the general prerequisite courses for entering the third cycle of studies, and of the targeted prerequisite courses for starting specific clinical rotations.  Mandatory requirements for all clinical clerkships reflect the school’s policy in providing the best possible preparation of the students to gain the most out of the clinical clerkships. In addition, successful completion of the clinical clerkships in Internal Medicine and Surgery is necessary to start the other clinical rotations.

In addition to the compulsory courses the program includes a large number of elective courses that provide knowledge and skills focused to a specific topic aiming to further expose students to specialized areas. The elective courses are allocated to each semester based on the current knowledge of the students, and aim to help them make more mature and goal-oriented choices.

In parallel, the Undergraduate Studies Program is enriched with courses (both compulsory and elective) that promote humanitarian values and enhance the development of the student’s personality based on the values of compassion and empathy, essential attributes of modern physicians.

The program has some additional unique features which stem from the fact that the Medical School of the University of Crete is strong in basic, translational and clinical research. The curriculum includes courses that focus on understanding the basis of the diseases at a molecular level. In the fifth semester a compulsory course on Molecular Medicine introduces students to the molecular basis of diseases, providing examples of the most up-to-date therapeutic targeting of molecular mechanisms in clinical practice. Several elective courses also provide insight in the pathogenetic mechanisms of diseases, reflecting current research at the different laboratories of the medical school. Another unique elective course in our curriculum is a hands-on laboratory training on Basic Science in Medicine, that gives the opportunity to students to actively participate in research being conducted at the Medical School laboratories.

This program is the first attempt by the University of Crete to offer a comprehensive foreign language bachelor degree. Tell us about this decision and why the field of Medicine was chosen.

The University of Crete has been committed to internalization and diversity, having a strong international exchange program and several English-taught graduate programs. The Medical School is the largest school of the University of Crete and has established a strong curriculum that was recently externally evaluated receiving outstanding scores in all sub-criteria. Having faculty that has been trained at top Universities and Hospitals abroad, many of which in the United States, and maintaining active collaborations with international Universities and Hospitals, the expertise was there, ready to be utilized. Establishing an English-taught international program was within the vision of the Medical School and something strongly suggested from all external evaluations of the School in the last fifteen years. Now that the legal framework allows the establishment of such programs, we embarked in organizing the International Program in Medicine.

Since the application period has just started, please tell us why an international student should choose this specific program.

The students who will join this program will receive training through a modern curriculum and become part of a school with a long successful tradition in training the future generation of medical doctors. A main advantage of our program is having a small class, which facilitates a personal approach in teaching. The program accepts 30 students, who will have the opportunity to be taught in the form of lectures, seminars and tutorials, including hands-on work in laboratories during the first years of studies and in the clinic, during clerkships. Having a small group of students, most courses are interactive utilizing a problem-based approach to facilitate clinical thinking and decision making. Personalized training will also be supported through tutorials. In addition, each student will have an academic advisor who will provide guidance throughout the studies.

The faculty of the Medical School have received training at top Universities and Hospitals throughout the world and are in position to offer high level training to the students. To further support internationalization, a large number of visiting faculty from Europe and the US, experts in their fields, will participate in teaching, sharing their expertise in particular topics.

The structure and content of the curriculum includes all knowledge required for the USMLE tests, to support preparation of students for continuing their career as medical residents in the US. A large number of the University of Crete Medical School alumni follow this path and pursue residency in hospitals outside Greece and our program provides them with the necessary knowledge and skills. The Medical School has already a bilateral agreement with Boston University for student exchange and a number of outstanding students are offered summer internships at BU, while BU medical students visit the University of Crete Medical School for training. Additional exchange opportunities are available to our students at Universities and Hospitals in the US and Europe.

Students who wish to participate in summer internships and exchanges will be supported financially through our program to cover part of their mobility costs. In addition, merit-based scholarships will be awarded to the students of the International Program in Medicine through the teaching assistantship program.

Students of the International Program in Medicine will have the opportunity to join an active academic community at the University of Crete, which is organized in a modern campus having all schools and facilities, such as gym with indoor swimming pool, library, student center as well as the University Hospital, within walking distance to each other. The collaborating Foundation for Research and Technology, an internationally recognized research center and the best in Greece, is located adjacent to the University Campus, also within walking distance.

Finally, becoming a student at the University of Crete will allow living on one of the most beautiful islands of the Mediterranean, offering mild weather throughout the year with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year and unique culture, being at a crossroad of civilizations. Heraklion is a very safe and vibrant city of approximately 180.000 people among which 18.000 are students, offering an exciting student life.

Which are your expectations in terms of attracting international students?

The International Program in Medicine abides by the values of the University of Crete, which are based on academic excellence, diversity and equality. We want to attract the best candidates from around the world, since we are going to invest in training them to become outstanding physicians, members of the University of Crete family and future ambassadors of our University. Our aim is to have a class of motivated students who will receive personal attention and training throughout their studies. Attracting candidates from very diverse backgrounds and countries will further support forming an academically strong group of students.

How do you believe that both the University as well as the local community of Heraklion would benefit by attracting international students?

Heraklion attracts more than 2 million tourists every year, creating an international environment, yet the University of Crete has a very small percentage of international students, primarily due to the language barrier. Establishing an English-taught program will enhance the international profile of the University and increase the diversity of the student population, who will have a lot to gain from the culture and experience brought from the international students. This diversity will be reflected to the local community, which already has a large international community from people working in research institutes and tourism.

This program demonstrates that the University of Crete strongly invests in extroversion by promoting innovation and research while pursuing an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge. Tell us about these initiatives.

The University of Crete has a strong focus on research, which requires international collaborations and extroversion. The University, together with the other academic establishments and research institutes in Crete, has invested during the recent years into creating hubs of excellence in specific scientific disciplines. Close collaboration with the adjacent Foundation of Research and Technology (FORTH) has resulted in creating a center for Precision Medicine and generated state of the art infrastructures for both basic and clinical research. The University of Crete and FORTH have strong departments of computer science which find applications in medicine. Another collaboration with the Hellenic Center for Marine Research has created infrastructure for identifying health promoting products from marine sources. Collaborations with the Hellenic Mediterranean University, research institutes and companies in Heraklion has also created the innovation hub on Agrofood, in which the medical school plays a key role. These are only few examples of the research and innovation taking place at the University of Crete, without mentioning the large number of European and other international research projects that are ongoing. The expertise that stems from research is readily reflected to the curriculum of the Medical School.  Students are exposed to research and several opportunities arise through these initiatives that allow students to participate.

Note that the applications deadline is on June 16.

Read also via Greek News Agenda: Greek Universities: English-taught undergraduate programs in Archaeology and Medicine attract foreign students; FORTH, the Foundation for Research and Technology in the island of Crete; Students from 27 countries at the international program of AUTh Medical School

The post Study in Greece | Bachelor’s Degree: Professor Christos Tsatsanis on the International Program in Medicine at the University of Crete appeared first on Greek News Agenda.

The web portal Study in Greece is campaigning for the promotion and international visibility of Greek Universities and the comparative educational advantages of our country. In particular, the campaign focuses on the foreign language study programs that Greek Universities offer to Greek and international students. The initiative is supported by the General Secretariat of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In this context, a number of educational programs and actions are presented in detail on a regular basis, such as undergraduate and postgraduate programs, summer schools etc, to inform international students about the many foreign language options offered by Greek Universities.

Study in Greece interviewed Associate Professor Ioannis Charalampopoulos, Director of the MSc in Neurosciences offered at the University of Crete (UOC) about the program, its features and what it has to offer to international students.

Ioannis Charalampopoulos is Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Medical School of the University of Crete, and Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation of Research and Technology Greece (FORTH). His research focuses on the investigation of the regenerative capacity of adult nervous system. His studies range from neurotrophin receptors structure-function experiments to pharmacological development of novel ligands for these receptors with neurogenic and regenerative properties.

Mr Charalampopoulos, please present to us in a few words the MSc in Neurosciences offered by the University of Crete.

The understanding of the brain function, revealing the mysteries of consciousness and novel therapeutic interventions to cure neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and paralysis, is perhaps the most challenging task of the mankind in our days. Thus, the field of Neuroscience aims to provide answers to the aforementioned questions integrating knowledge, principles and tools from multiple scientific disciplines.

The Graduate Program in "Neurosciences" (GPN) began its operation, as the first graduate program in this field, in 1994 at the Medical School of the University of Crete and was reformed twice, in 2002 and 2022. The purpose of its establishment was, and still is, to provide high-level postgraduate education in graduates of life sciences, including medical doctors, pharmacists, biologists and psychologists, in cellular, molecular, cognitive, translational and clinical Neuroscience, leading to a master’s degree. GPN cultivates the ability to perform high impact research in neuroscience and prepares its graduates for doctoral studies. Moreover, the program offers significant skills necessary for in a variety of health science’s employees and prepares students for a successful career in a wide range of professional jobs related to the study and treatment of the nervous system. To date, the Program has trained more than 120 students, while in the running academic year (2022-2023) 14 new postgraduate students are expected to complete their studies.

Program’s duration is 2 years, separated in the first round (1 year), consisting of teaching classes, starting from the basic knowledge of neurophysiology, cellular and molecular neurobiology and neuropharmacology, followed by more specific courses in behavioral sciences, neuropsychopharmacology, developmental and aging neuroscience, as well as practical skills in imaging, bioinformatics, methods and tools in neuroscience. In the second year, students are exposed in research by performing 2 rotations (3 months each) and a 6-month diploma work in labs and clinics of their choice. Upon successful examination in all courses and approval of their diploma work from a 3-membered committee, students fulfill the necessary preconditions for obtaining the Master Degree in Neurosciences.

The program accepts new students every 2 years starting in October, after the announcement on previous April-May. Students who have completed (or expected to complete their undergraduate studies till late September) are encouraged to submit their CVs, detailed course transcripts and diplomas, as well as 2 recommendation letters. The selection process also includes a personal interview from the Selection Committee. Native and foreign students are accepted. The number of accepted students is usually around 15 students.

Please tell us about the collaboration with the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (IMBB-FORTH).

Through the two-year, full-time attendance of the program, the students receive specialized theoretical knowledge, but they are also having the opportunity for performing research  in the participating Laboratories and Clinics of the Program, at the University of Crete (School of Medicine, Schools of Biology and Psychology), at the Foundation of Technology and Research (FORTH). FORTH is closely related, not only in the sense of proximity, but mostly due to its sharing facilities, multidisciplinary research and common research personnel with the University. Many members of the GPN are both UoC professors and FORTH researchers, thus they offer multiple options for their students.  In addition, GPN has also established strong collaboration with other Institutes and Universities of the country (University of Athens, Aristotle Univ.,) and abroad (Karolinska Institute-Sweden, Cambridge Univ.-United Kingdom, University of Dresden-Germany, etc.).

Given that the program is taught in English, please tell us why an international student should choose it among others in the field of Medicine?

The program is supported from more than 40 professors and researchers, administration staff and other personnel. The faculty members of the program represent all neuroscience sub-fields supported by the program and including cellular and molecular neuroscience, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, computational neuroscience, neuropsychology and clinical neuroscience. All members of the program have been evaluated for their academic performance from the existing members of the program, in order to ensure high quality of the training personnel. The Steering Committee (5 members) supervises and organizes the details of the program, while each member of the program provides help and support to every student in a daily base manner. Our program is member of EURON, a European network of graduate programs in Neuroscience, while it strongly supports and pursues new collaborations.

Our extensive experience from the more than 20 years of operation of the Neuroscience Program, its continuous evaluation from students and members, the sustained and increasing interest from new students, as well as the follow up of our students upon completion of their studies, have established our program as one of the first choices for graduate studies in Greece.

All the aforementioned characteristics and standards of the GPN support its unique role on the education of neurosciences in Greece, eventually ranking it among the best graduate programs in biomedical studies and perhaps the best in cellular and molecular neurosciences.

What future prospects are opened up for graduate students who would like to continue their careers as researchers?

The recently reformed program has been expanded in more scientific areas of the Neuroscience field, integrating bioinformatics, -omics and human studies, along with new researchers that have joined the program. In this way, the program welcomes students with background in life (medical doctors, biologists, pharmacists, chemists, etc.), social (psychologists) but also engineering sciences, aiming to provide all the necessary knowledge and practical, soft skills for a successful career as experts in the Neuroscience field.

The majority of GPN students have continued their research work at a PhD level, in UoC or FORTH laboratories, but also in universities and institutes abroad (Karolinska Institute, TU Dresden, King’s College, UCL, etc). Many of them have been already independent researchers and group leaders and professors. Based on the extroversion of our graduate program and the theoretical and practical skills that we provide to our students, but most importantly through the scientific inspiration and the research culture, we prepare them very efficiently for an career in Academia or as leaders in the Biopharmaceutical industry, or even as entrepreneurships in their own start-up companies.

What do the city of Heraklion and the island of Crete in general have to offer to an international student?

The island of Crete is a unique destination in the Mediterranean area and offers high standards of living in a sunny and warm place. Full communication with all parts of Greece and many cities in Europe is supported since there are excellent traveling capabilities, both by air (at least 5 flights every day for Athens International Airport) and sea (two ships are travelling every day from Heraklion to Piraeus, offering comfortable, low price travel). Heraklion is a modern city, with many places for cultural visits (museum, Knossos, etc) and high standards of living. Crete is the biggest island in Greece and offers many places for vacations, even for daily trips.

The academic environment is also unique, since many academic and research institutes are located nearby (the Medical School, Bioloy and Chemistry Depts and FORTH are located in less than 1Km distance), offering many opportunities for collaboration and enhancing the scientific interactions with common seminars, workshops etc. Heraklion and Crete are ideal locations for summer schools, national and international conferences and workshops, and many European and US societies are organizing their activities on the island.

Tell us a few things about the University of Crete – its history, its spirit, etc. and its efforts to adapt to the world of contemporary innovation, research and extroversion.

The University of Crete stands out as one of the high-ranked research organizations in Greece, especially in Life Sciences’ research, and provides all the necessary facilities, both for studying and research. The majority of its graduate students have remained in academic research environments, conducting PhD studies in Greek but also European Universities and Institutes, indicating the dedicated to science spirit of the University and his strong will to support and expand its scientific role as a priority choice. The significant research oriented tradition of the University, based on the vision of its founders like Professor Fotis Kafatos and others,  the quality and the diversity of its professors and researchers, as well as it analytical and multidisciplinary curriculum guarantees state-of-the-art studies for the next years too.

Anyone interested in more details and personal contact could obtain all the necessary information at the following website: https://www.neurosciences.med.uoc.gr/ or directly contact the Program Secretariat Ms. Tseni Dokoumetzidis at postgradsecr@med.uoc. gr.

Please note that the MSc in Neurosciences is now accepting applications for the next academic year and the deadline is on June 9th. Read also via Greek News Agenda:  FORTH, the Foundation for Research and Technology in the island of Crete; Study in Greece Master’s of the Week: Professor Spiros Efthimiopoulos presents the Athens International Master’s Program in Neurosciences, NKUA

The post Study in Greece Masters of the Week: Associate Professor Ioannis Charalampopoulos on the MSc in Neurosciences at UOC appeared first on Greek News Agenda.

Dr. Anezina Solomonidou works at the space agency of Greece, the Hellenic Space Center, as the Scientific Officer of Space Science and Space Exploration. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Greece from the Department of Geology of the University of Patras, specializing in Volcanology. She then expanded her knowledge with a master’s degree in Planetary Geology at the University College London (UCL) in London, where she focused on modeling the cryovolcanoes of the icy moons of the outer solar system. She received her PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the Observatory of Paris in France, in a collaboration agreement with the University of Athens. In 2014, she started working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Los Angeles, California as a researcher of the Cassini space mission, while since the beginning of 2018 in parallel work with NASA, she worked at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Madrid in Spain on the preparation of the new space mission to the outer solar system named JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE), as well as NASA's mission to the Jupiter system, Europa Clipper. Starting in mid-2022, she works at the space agency of Greece, the Hellenic Space Center, as the Scientific Officer of Space Science and Space Exploration. Dr. Solomonidou and her research team have proposed a series of planetary experiments adapted to the exotic environment of the icy moons of the giant planets and has contributed to the design of future space missions, Finally, she is President and Vice-Chair in European and International planetary science committees and unions, while she participates in outreach activities in Greece and abroad.

Dr Solomonidou spoke to Greek News Agenda* on the role of the Hellenic Space Center** and the position of Greece in space exploration describing how space developments have a meaning for the general public. As a Greek Diaspora scientist excelling abroad Dr Solomonidou outlines how she decided to return to Greece and how the country itself can encourage distinguished Greek scientists abroad to contribute to Greece’s development, particularly in the fields of science and technology. Dr Solomonidou is also sharing with us her thoughts about the future of space research illustrating how “science and exploration are inextricably linked to nature, philosophy, art, and to everything that gives quality and true meaning to our lives”.

Mars, Photo by NASA on Unsplash

You have worked for many years in remarkable space institutions abroad. Why did you decide to return to Greece and work for the Hellenic Space Center (HSC) and what are your main duties there?

After working for more than a decade at both NASA and ESA and gaining experience from these two large space agencies, I found it very intriguing and good in timing to return to Greece, which is now considered to be an emerging space nation. Greece, until recently was one of the few ESA member-states lacking a national coordinating institution. Therefore, the foundation of a space agency was a necessity more than ever, and that is why the Hellenic Space Center (HSC) which is the Greek Space Agency was founded. The HSC, as the nation’s space agency, is here to promote, disseminate, implement, and exploit the national space strategy of Greece. In this framework, within my duties, I am responsible for the planning, coordination, and implementation of programs related to research and development in the fields of Space Science and Space Exploration, in collaboration with public and private entities active in these fields in Greece and abroad.

You are one of the Greek Diaspora scientists excelling abroad. In what ways do you think the Greek Diaspora can contribute to Greece’s development, particularly in the fields of science and technology, and how can the country itself encourage them in this?

I consider it particularly important for the development of a researcher to gain experience from different countries, different laboratories and institutes, in countries and organizations that offer variety in the space and research 'culture'. And this is precisely the culture Greece needs to build that, in a sense, lack so far due to the limited access to resources and national plan, and what the return of a scientist from abroad to Greece can offer. Beyond the personal need for development and exploration that may have driven a scientist to emigrate abroad in the past decades, the very situation in research and education in Greece is marginally prohibitive for a stable and evolving career with elements of progress and the aim to create a pathway of ‘exchange’ between the scientific community and the society and vice versa. The governments will need to radically change their beliefs towards the scientific community and the way science is conducted in Greece in order to support the current scientists and engineers, which are the backbone of scientific and technological development in Greece, encourage the return of Greek scientists back to the country, but also for an equally important factor: to attract scientists from all over the world; people who will bring their knowledge and scientific culture to the country.

Photo courtesy of Dr Anezina Solomonidou

Last July Greece hosted the 44th Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Scientific Assembly, the most prestigious space research event worldwide. What is the position of a small country such as Greece in what we call space exploration? What are the objectives and the role of the Hellenic Space Center regarding the development of the Greek space strategy and what are this strategy’s benefits for the country?

Greece is a member-state of one of the largest space agencies in the world, the European Space Agency (ESA). So far, as a country, we realize our endeavors in space primarily through this membership. The Hellenic Space Center is the Greek space agency and has the mandate to advise and support the government in all matters of space and to represent Greece at relevant international organizations – such as the International Astronautical Federation for example. A space agency is the ‘mothership’ and the main responsible entity of each country’s space program as well as aeronautics and space research. Indeed, COSPAR is a very prestigious international space research event and our presence as hosts and as the nation’s agency for the first time gave us the opportunity to show that Greece’s space sector even though is relatively new, yet is rapidly developing, and our agency is here to work on this development. Having been given the opportunity of COSPAR held in Athens, HSC officers got the chance to hold important meetings with delegates of NASA and its various centers such as JPL and Ames, and representatives from other space agencies.

In HSC, we are working towards the development of a space strategy proposal and a dynamically rolling action plan for the national space strategy. This is being built in collaboration with the academic and research community, the public and private sector that identifies targets, areas of cooperation and processes for achieving goals. Briefly, we are forming the country’s agenda in space matters and advising the government on satellite services and space matters in general. Greece and its citizen are benefited from the development of the Greek space strategy in many aspects. A nation’s involvement in the space ‘market’ offers significant benefits to its citizens starting from the very important involvement and contribution to education and the development of environmental and scientific consciousness, i.e., the motivation of people towards the care of the natural world and the use of renewable resources, and then to the highly growing space economy, which is now marking one of the fastest rates of growth in international markets.

Views, photo by NASA on Unsplash

Does the study of space affect our perceptions about our planet, and if so, in what ways is this happening? What are the fundamental space discoveries altering the way we perceive our world?

With our ‘eyes’ and our personal beliefs open, the perception we have for our planet and everything that surrounds it, can change day by day. Science and exploration offer a state of realism to a society that can be consumed in a 'bubble' of repetition and false reality. Science and exploration are inextricably linked to nature, to philosophy, to art, and to everything that gives quality and true meaning to our lives. So, being in contact with science, making it actual part of our lives, keeping up with the ‘extraterrestrial’ news and understanding our cosmic roots (i.e., where we are, what surrounds us, how we are part of the whole), lead us to create a comprehensive life, inclusive to all beings, in sync with the natural world, with the option to experience life at its fullest. Through space exploration we discovered that our species has the means to survive on a celestial object other than Earth (the Moon!), we took a photo of our planet from afar, we placed artificial satellites in Earth’s orbit to help our terrestrial lives, we sent a spacecraft so far that it crossed the boundaries of our solar system (Voyager), we took the first and only photo of an outer solar system surface of a place that looks a lot like Earth (Huygens – Titan), and so many more that completely changed our perception of time, space, and existence itself.

Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. Photo credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

There has been significant progress recently in the field of space research, such as the construction of the powerful James Webb Space Telescope that can take high-resolution pictures of the Universe. What should we anticipate in the near future regarding space exploration? Do you think that these developments have a meaning for the general public and that space science can be popularized?

The more we grow as society, the more we realize things about our existence, the more we passionately want to explore space. There is a direct link between our existence and the need for discovery and exploration. And what’s more mysterious, more exciting, and more related to us than space? Our planet’s and our species’ future will continue to be a story of exploration, technology, and science. In the last decade alone, we experienced tremendous growth in space exploration with the Webb Telescope, the landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars, the very recent Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission which performs a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (in a nutshell: how to avoid experiencing the Armageddon movie in real life). Same with the low-Earth orbit ecosystem, where the International Space Station (ISS) is offering a wealth of information on a great number of issues and the plethora of small satellites in orbit around us has upgraded the human experience tremendously in terms of safety, communication, transportation, and more.

For the near future, we expect a number of planned missions to be launched such as ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), which will help us determine more about the nature and location of black holes and help us test Einstein’s theories on the matter, the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE), which will be the first spacecraft in orbit around a satellite (Ganymede), the Dragonfly mission to Titan which will study its astrobiological potential, and the closest approach to the Sun of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which is the fastest man-made object ever made.

Now, what is truly amazing about these missions, which only represent a portion of the fleet planned for planetary and space exploration in the near future, is that through these missions many innovations that help our terrestrial experience are being made ranging from medicine to engineering and most importantly targeting the environmental and planetary protection. Essentially, in what is called the ‘modern Space Race’, soon our species will go back to the Moon in order to learn more about what it will take to support human exploration in targets beyond our ‘neighborhood’ and eventually as a common goal to answer the question with proof of whether we are alone in the Universe. All these show why and how space developments have a meaning for the general public and why it is a necessity for space science to be popularized. We, at the Hellenic Space Center, are devoted to the development of Greece as a strong international player in space science and space exploration; furthermore, we collaborate with relevant agencies and services to continuously train students, young researchers, and public officials in Space issues, as well as design and participate in actions to understand space activities and applications and engage the public with them.

* Interview by Ioulia Elmatzoglou

** The Hellenic Space Center, founded in 2019, formulates the elements of the national strategy and the definition of an action plan in the domain of space. In the framework of this responsibility, HSC collaborates with the scientific community, and the public and private sector, to define targets and fields of collaboration. The Hellenic Space Center coordinates public entities and manages national programs in all space sectors, including scientific research and technology, telecommunications, security, environment, agricultural development, etc.

Intro photo courtesy of Dr Anezina Solomonidou

I.E. 

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Greece has been focusing in the last years on the internationalization of its higher education removing bureaucratic barriers and facilitating the academic and student mobility. Through bilateral and multilateral agreements with several countries Greece has been decisively promoting educational cooperation and synergies in the academic and research field. The establishment of joint or dual degrees between Greek and foreign Universities has also been looked into and this is the case with the UK Universities particularly in the post-Brexit era.

The UK-Greece Strategic Partnership in Education

Following the UK-Greece Strategic Partnership in Education launched in 2021 by the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, the British Council Greece  and the British Embassy in Athens, the two countries are aiming to support universities from both countries to identify and facilitate collaborations with their counterparts. These might include supporting them in developing joint and dual degrees, distance learning, summer programmes, academic and student exchanges, or other learning opportunities.

A conference about this strategic partnership, organized in Athens last March, aimed to shed light on the efforts of both Greek and UK Universities to design joint degrees that will be certified by both institutions. Especially in the post-Brexit era these joint programs could attract local but also third-country students in Athens thanks to lower fees and lower cost of living. The majority of these programs will be postgraduate programs, aimed not just at Greek and other students from the South Eastern Europe, but also from distant countries such as China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Greece has the potential to attract international students as “it is a relatively low-cost country that is also a member of the European Union, providing very good quality studies and all the benefits that a Mediterranean country can offer”, Professor Christos Michalakelis, president and co-founder of Study in Greece -the official project to promote the country as an international education destination- said during the conference. Excellent weather conditions and a rich cultural heritage along with hospitable people and talented youth are some of the benefits that Greece has to offer to international students. Needless to say that Greece is a stable and safe EU county, located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa.

All Higher Education Institutes in Greece have already expressed interest to participate in the programme, as well as 61 Universities of the United Kingdom, including several Russell Group universities - Imperial College London, Durham University, University of Warwick, University of Exeter, University of Glasgow, University of Leeds, University of York, University of Nottingham, University of Liverpool, and Cardiff University.

Education has always been one of the strongest bonds between Greece and the UK, while at the same attracting international students in Greece contributes to the mutual understanding between people and cultures and to the exchange of ideas in the academic and research field. Moreover, in today’s globalized and interconnected world, interaction and exchanges is of great importance, both for the academic communities and countries. Through these synergies Greece can also enhance its reputation and its position in the academic and global community.

Already existing English – taught university programs in Greece

There are currently in Greece 140 postgraduate programs and two bachelor degree programmes that are taught in English. Universities offering these courses include the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens University of Economics and Business, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Crete, International Hellenic University, University of the Aegean, University of Peloponnese, and the University of Macedonia, covering a wide range of academic disciplines from Humanitarian Studies and
Classics to Medicine, Business Administration and Shipping.

This list may well grow in the coming year, with many Greek universities having already applied for funding and support from the Greek government to create new English-language programmes, which will be ready for students either by the next academic year (2022-23), or the year afterwards (2023-24), said Apostolos Dimitropoulos, Secretary General for Higher Education at the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, during the conference.

Partnerships with US Universities

University of Thessaly, Volos [source: International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP) website]

Collaboration with UK Universities follows the successful collaboration of Greek Universities with 29 top US Universities which is based on the International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP) operating by the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs in partnership with the International Institute of Education (IIE) since December 2019.

The University of Athens is co-organising with Harvard University (FXB Center for Health and Human Rights) an Intensive Summer Course on Migration and Refugee Studies in Greece, while it is also cooperating with Boston and Yale Universities for the organisation of a Summer Course in Classical Greece  and a Centre for excellence for environmental sciences and public health respectively. A summer school is also hosted by the National Technical University of Athens in Greece in cooperation with New York’s Columbia University. Greek researchers from the US’ Johns Hopkins University and Ionian University have joined forces to confront the epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease and its related disorders in Greece, while the University of Piraeus is organising in collaboration with New York University’s Center for Global Affairs (CGA) the first MSc in American studies program in Greece. Athens University of Economics and Business has been collaborating with Kelley School of Business, Indiana University and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is cooperating with Stockton University.

Read also via Greek News Agenda:

International educational programmes for foreign students in Greek Universities

On-line Conference highlights on Reinforcing bridges between Greek Universities and the Greek Diaspora

Study in Greece launches two innovative platforms to support internationalisation and modernisation of Greek Higher Education

Study Classical Greece in Athens

 I.E. 

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Greek News Agenda pays tribute to Greek physician and researcher Georgios Papanicolaou (May 13, 1883- February 19, 1962) to mark the 60th anniversary of his death. A pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer detection, Papanicolaou invented the famous "Pap smear” test that came to play a leading role in preventing uterine cancer, thus saving the lives of millions of women around the world.

A life devoted to humanity

Georgios Papanicolaou worked as a researcher in the United States for nearly 50 years. Many of Papanicolaou’s colleagues in the US, such as Dr. Charles Cameron, described his life as “a life devoted to mankind”. Actions spoke louder than words in Papanicolaou’s case, as he dedicated his life to science completely and through his revolutionary work succeeded in changing women’s health forever.

Background: studies and early career

Born in the coastal town of Kymi, Euboea, Georgios was one of the four children of Nikolaos Papanicolaou, a physician popular enough to be elected mayor and Member of Parliament. Showing a particular inclination towards medicine from an early age, Georgios succeeded in gaining entry at the School of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1898 at the age of 15! After his graduation, he returned to his hometown, but was reluctant to practice medicine; instead, he decided to study philosophy and biology, being influenced, among others, by the theories of Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Goethe.

Following his father’s will, he continued his studies in Biology and Zoology in Germany, where he acquired his Ph.D. in 1910; it was during this “German period” of his life that Papanicolaou decided that research and biology would be the twofold purpose of his life. As he wrote in a letter to his family, “I quit being a dreamer. Science snatched me up from Nietzsche’s arms. I stand on solid ground”.

From Greece to the US: The road to Papanicolaou’s medical breakthrough

Following his return to Greece in 1910, Papanicolaou got married to the educated and open-minded Andromache Mavrogeni, a descendant of the legendary Mavrogenous family which played a pivotal role in the Greek War of Independence. Realizing that the ground in his home country was not, at the time, fertile for his scientific research, Papanicolaou and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1913. It is well worth noting that Andromache would serve as Papanicolaou´s research subject, especially in the initial phase of his work. As she had stated, “There was no other option for me but to follow him inside the lab, making his way of life mine.” In fact, she was so devoted to him that she decided not to have children in order to always be by his side, which she never regretted.

Papanicolaou’s career in the US developed rapidly. After overcoming initial hurdles, he landed a part-time research role in the department of pathology at the former New York Hospital and soon moved to a full-time research position at Cornell University Medical College in New York. There, he commenced his studies on cervical cancer, which, in the early 1900s was the leading cause of cancer deaths in women. In 1928, he introduced the world to a technique used to diagnose cervical cancer that he called “the Pap smear”.

However, it took around two decades for the medical community to accept his work. In 1952, he convinced the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to conduct a massive trial using his Pap smear technique. The NCI trials continued and eventually led to the Pap test, which saved countless women’s lives.

The diachronic value of Papanicolaou’s legacy

Papanicolaou’s bibliography consists of 158 articles and five scientific books, the most prominent being the famous Atlas of Exfoliative Cytology. The book is a milestone not only in the science of cytology but also in the medical bibliography of the 20th century as a whole. He was nominated twice for a Nobel Prize in Medicine but didn’t receive it as the committee would give the award to doctors who had discovered therapies and not to researchers who were engaged in the prevention of disease.

However, he was awarded many medical prizes, both in his lifetime and posthumously, the most notable being the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, bestowed by the American Public Health Association in 1950, and the Medal of Honor, given to him by the American Cancer Society in 1952. Additionally, he was conferred honorary membership to the Obstetrical and Gynecological Society of Athens and the New York Academy of Sciences. Moreover, the Cancer Research Institute in Miami, where Papanicolaou was a manager for a few months prior to his death, was renamed after him in recognition of his pioneering work. Last but not least, the National Kapodistrian University of Athens created, in his honor, a “Papanicolaou Museum” at the Laboratory of Descriptive Anatomy of its Medical faculty.

Papanicolaou’s contribution to medical research was game-changing. As Dr. Rema Rao (Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College, also working at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital) acknowledged in an interview: “The Pap test is one of the most important inventions in humankind because it was extremely challenging to prevent cervical cancer and the severity of it. The only answer was the Pap test.”To date, even after the introduction of HPV vaccination into clinical practice, Papanicolaou's method remains an essential component of the prevention strategy against cancer and has resulted in a 70% decrease in cervical cancer mortality in the USA over the last 70 years.  

More info & photos: Visit Dr Pap website | Read George N. Papanicolaou, M.D., Life and Career: The way to the Pap Test book, published by the Hellenic Medical Society of New York.

E.S. 

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Constantin Carathéodory was a distinguished German-born mathematician of Greek origin who made important contributions to the theory of real functions, to the calculus of variations, and to the theory of point-set measure. Although he spent most of his life in countries like Brussels and Germany, his Greek heritage always held a special place in his heart, and he showed active interest in promoting education and the study of sciences in Greece.

Carathéodory was born in Berlin on 13 September 1873. His father was Stephanos Carathéodory, a legal scholar of Greek origin from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul); Stephanos was a diplomat of the Ottoman Empire, and from 1875 he served as ambassador to Brussels, where his son would grow up. The Carathéodory family had a long diplomatic tradition and several family members had held important government posts in Constantinople. Constantinos Caratheodory (1802–1879), father of Stephanos, had served as the personal physician of the Sultan, and was a distinguished teacher at the Imperial School of Medicine in Constantinople.

Constantin's mother, Despina, came from the Greek island of Chios (then also part of the Ottoman Empire); she died of pneumonia in 1879, and Constantin was raised by his maternal grandmother. Growing up, he would speak several languages, including Greek, French, German, Turkish and English. In 1886, he entered the Athénée Royal d'Ixelles school, graduating in 1891. He twice won the first prize of the Concours généraux, the Belgian national mathematics competition for advanced secondary-school pupils.

Constantin Carathéodory with his father, 1896 (via Wikimedia Commons)

From 1891 to 1895, Carathéodory studied Civil Engineering at the Royal Military Academy of Belgium. Following his graduation, he worked as a civil engineer on the island of Lesbos, on a road construction project that was eventually abandoned due to the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. In 1898 he went to Egypt to work as an assistant engineer with the British Asyūṭ Dam project on the Nile River. During his stay, he travelled through the country and wrote a book about its geography and history. In his spare time, he also delved into the study of mathematics, and –to the dismay of his family– eventually decided to quit his job and further pursue his passion academically.

Carathéodory began his study of mathematics in 1900 at the University of Berlin, where he attended the lectures of Georg Frobenius and Herrmann Amandus Schwarz. In 1902 he continued his studies at the University Göttingen, which at the time enjoyed worldwide reputation in the field of advanced mathematics. In 1904 he received his PhD under Hermann Minkowski, presenting his doctoral thesis "On discontinuous solutions in the calculus of variations".

Constantin Carathéodory (sitting third from the left) with his cousins in Constantinople (via Wikimedia Commons)

He remained in Göttingen, working on his habilitation thesis "On strong maxima and minima in simple integrals", which he presented in 1905 (ahead of the customary waiting period), and went on to work there as a Privatdozent (lecturer without tenure) until 1908. In 1907, his father passed away.

In April 1908, Carathéodory went to teach as a Privatdozent at the University of Bonn. In February 1909 he was married in Constantinople to Euphrosyne Carathéodory, who was his father’s first cousin; that same year, he was appointed full Professor at the Technical University of Hannover. In October 1910 he accepted the Chair of Higher Mathematics at the newly founded Technical University of Breslau, and in April 1913 he was appointed professor at Göttingen. In 19018 he was appointed to the University of Berlin, and in 19019 he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

In the meantime, the Greco-Turkish War of 1919 had broken out in the aftermath of World War I. In the beginning of the war, the Greek forces took control of the city of Smyrna (modern-day İzmir), which was home to a large and vibrant Greek community. The Greek authorities decided to establish the first higher education institution in the city, the "Ionian University of Smyrna". For this purpose, they invited Carathéodory, as one of the most distinguished academics of Greek descent, to take up the management of the University.

Carathéodory in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia with his father, brother-in-law and sister Julia, 1898 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Carathéodory accepted, ending his contract with Berlin on 31 December 1919. He had already met with Venizelos earlier in that year, and discussed the founding of a Greek university outside of Athens, even submitting a memorandum on this subject. He undertook the task of organising of the university from scratch, deciding on its departments, curriculum and teaching staff; he chose several recognised scholars of Greek descent from foreign universities, and was himself to be the Professor of Mathematics. However, the plans for the university would never materialise, as the Turkish forces advanced, pushing back the Greek forces and taking over Smyrna in September 1922. During the Smyrna Catastrophe, Carathéodory was able to salvage documents and books which he had personally brought for the university’s library from around Europe.

After leaving Smyrna with his wife and two children, he remained in Athens, where he taught at the National University of Athens and the National Technical University. In 1924, he left to accept professorship at the University of Munich, a position he held until his retirement in August 1938. In 1925, he was elected a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 1928 he became the first visiting lecturer of the American Mathematical Society, giving lectures in the Universities of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Princeton, among others.

Constantin Carathéodory (sitting) with Hungarian mathematician Lipót Fejér (via Wikimedia Commons)

In 1930-32, he again accepted an invitation by the Greek government, and served as a government commissioner at the University of Athens and the (recently founded) University of Thessaloniki, undertaking the task of reorganising both institutions and bringing them up to European standards.

He gave his final lecture at the Munich Mathematical Colloquium in December 1949. Carathéodory died on 2 February 1950 and was buried in the Munich Waldfriedhof cemetery.

Carathéodory is predominantly known for his contributions to the theory of real functions, to the calculus of variations, and to the theory of point-set measure. He developed a comprehensive theory of discontinuous solutions in the calculus of variations and added important results to the relationship between first-order partial differential equations and the calculus of variations. He contributed important findings to the theory of the functions of several variables and simplified the proof of the main theorem of conformal representation of simply connected regions on the unit-radius circle. His investigations of the geometrical-set theoretic properties of boundaries resulted in his theory of boundary correspondence. He also offered the first systematic and contradiction free formulation of thermodynamics.

1994 Greek stamps with Constantin Carathéodory and pre-Socratic philosopher Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – c. 546 BC) (via Science on Stamps)

He was particularly interested in the calculus of variations. The new field concept that Carathéodory introduced into the calculus of variations was to have great consequences. Carathéodory derived an inequality from it, which 20 years later caused a sensation in the mathematical world under a different name, as Bellman's equation or inequality, and became the basis for the principle of dynamic optimisation, and has since radiated far beyond mathematics. He was also considered a talented public speaker and lecturer.

His work has been greatly influential for scientists in various fields of mathematics and beyond. When Albert Einstein was establishing his theory of general relativity, he turned to Carathéodory for help with problems that could be traced back to problems in the calculus of variations. As can be seen in their correspondence, Carathéodory was in fact able to provide him with important mathematical explanations for the foundation of his theory, for which Einstein showed great appreciation and gratitude.

Read also via Greek News Agenda: Beyond Socrates - Greek philosophers you might not know ; Iannis Xenakis: Science as art

N.M. (Based on an article by E.G. in Griechenland Aktuell; additional sources: Britannica, MacTutor Archive; intro image: Constantin Carathéodory, late 19th / early 20th century [via Wikimedia Commons])

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Greece-based project EarlY WArning System for Mosquito-borne Diseases (EYWA) is the winner of the European Innovation Council- Horizon Prize for 'Early Warning for Epidemics' becoming a model of successful European partnership and excellence while demonstrating the Union’s capability of providing solutions to global challenges.

“My sincere congratulations to EYWA – the winner of the EIC Horizon Prize on Early Warning for Epidemics. The solution, based on Earth observation and other data, improves Europe’s preparedness to fight vector-borne diseases, also addressing the effects of climate change on human health, at home and abroad […]” said Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

More specifically, fifteen European partners -six of which are Greek- collaborated under the umbrella of “EuroGEO Action Group Earth Observation for Epidemics of Vector-borne Diseases” led by the BEYOND Centre of Earth Observation Research and Satellite Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens, Modern Greece’s first research center founded in 1842. The challenge was to develop a scalable, reliable, and cost-effective early warning system prototype to forecast and monitor vector-borne diseases (including malaria, Zika, dengue, or yellow fever) which - according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) - account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases in over 100 countries, causing more than 700 000 deaths annually.

Within this context – taking into account that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to end the epidemics of malaria and neglected tropical diseases by 2030- the EYWA becomes a key weapon in the arsenal to fight epidemics. It transforms scientific knowledge into a decision-making tool, contributing significantly to combatting and controlling the threat of mosquito-borne diseases. In particular, the unique solution developed by EYWA:

• enhances mosquito surveillance and control at various Spatio-temporal scales and in different climatic zones, and guides day to day prevention and mitigation actions
• significantly reduces the entomological risk and results in the aversion of human cases in thousands of villages where EYWA is employed
• implements the One Health and Eco-Health approaches by investigating arbovirus infections, while taking into account environmental and socio-economic resilience. 

The technological novelty of EYWA lies in the efficient handling of multiple data sources such as entomological, epidemiological, Earth Observation, crowd, and ancillary geospatial data, along with dynamic and data-driven models to generate knowledge on the mosquitoes’ abundance and pathogens’ transmission. Thanks to data provided by the satellites and Core Services of Copernicus (the EU's Earth observation program), EYWA reliably depicts the dynamics of mosquito habitats and breeding sites.

The BEYOND Centre of Excellence of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) develops research in a number of thematic areas and provides disaster management services addressing priorities and needs in South-Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, N. Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans; its activity is being supported by a multidisciplinary team of experts comprising of more than 35 scientists. The NOA is one of the country’s Research Centres operating under the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation; founded in 1842, it is the first research center of Modern Greece and South-eastern Europe, thus counting more than 175 years of contribution to research and society.

EIC Horizon Prize Early Warning for Epidemics – Winner: EYWA | Dr Haris Kontoes, Research Director of National Observatory of Athens BEYOND Center

More info: visit the EYWA platform and BEYOND Center website

See also on GNA:

E.S. 

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Dr. Achillefs Kapanidis is Professor of Biological Physics at the Department of Physics of the University of Oxford. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Kapanidis has become known to the wider public, because his team has introduced a new method for coronavirus detection which only takes a few minutes, with a validation accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of more than 90 percent; efforts are now being made for this to be developed into a rapid diagnostic test to detect the coronavirus in respiratory samples.

Born in Thessaloniki, where he also completed his first degree, Achillefs Kapanidis continued his studies abroad and went on to hold research scientist positions at major institutions, eventually becoming a Senior Lecturer (2005) and then Professor (2003) at Oxford University, where he has been leading a group, known as the "Gene Machines" group, which studies machines of gene expression by observing single molecules of gene-expression machinery.

Dr. Kapanidis was interviewed by the Press & Communications Office at the Embassy of Greece in London regarding his team’s groundbreaking advancements in virus detection and his outlook on the Covid-19 pandemic, but also about his experiences living and working abroad and the role Greece still plays in his life.

Could you please introduce yourself to our readers? Tell us please about your studies, your academic and professional trajectory and how you have come to work in the University of Oxford, leading a team that conducts research on Covid-19.

I have been born and raised in Thessaloniki, where I also completed my first degree in Chemistry at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. After completing a Master’s in Food Chemistry at Rutgers University (USA), I received my PhD in Biological Chemistry for work I completed at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, also at Rutgers. After holding research scientist positions in single-molecule biological physics at Berkeley and UCLA, I became a Senior Lecturer at Oxford University in 2005, and a Professor of Biological Physics in 2013; I have also been a European Research Council (ERC) grant holder and I am currently a Wellcome Trust Investigator.

Since 2005, I have been leading a group of physical and biological scientists (which we informally call the "Gene Machines" group) which studies microbial biological machinery involved in gene expression and regulation, with a focus on gene transcription and DNA repair. Our main tool is advanced fluorescence microscopy based on the observation of single protein and DNA molecules, linked with sophisticated image/data analysis; the past few years, my group has also been working on rapid and ultrasensitive detection of antibiotic resistance and pathogenic viruses, including influenza and coronaviruses.

My work has been published in more than 100 papers and book chapters, as well as in several patent applications. My group has also been pursuing miniaturised single-molecule imaging, a project that culminated my co-founding of the Oxford Nanoimaging spin-out; for these contributions, I was co-awarded the 2019 Innovator of the Year Award from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Finally, I have been involved in the establishment of a new interdisciplinary institute at Oxford (to open in 2021) focusing on using cutting-edge physical approaches to study biological mechanisms in living cells.

How could your team’s research findings contribute to the efforts against Covid-19?

We have been working on understanding the replication mechanisms of the influenza (flu) virus since 2012, and more recently, we have been exploring ways to detect that virus rapidly. In November 2019, we published a method that uses calcium to bind small pieces of fluorescent DNA to enveloped virus particles and to fluorescently label them (Robb et al., Scientific Reports 2019); we can then observe labelled viruses on a sensitive fluorescence microscope, and assess their morphology and size. Our assay is extremely fast (takes just one minute), and works well on respiratory viruses such as influenza and RSV in clinical samples. Notably, the work on the clinical samples was a collaboration with the laboratory of Andreas Mentis at the Hellenic Pasteur Institute in Athens.

When coronavirus emerged in China, we reasoned that our assay should work with the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. We thus obtained permission to continue working despite the closure of our Department, and indeed established that our assay can detect the presence of the virus; part of this work was done in collaboration with the CEMIPAI CNRS Institute at Montpellier, who had access to SARS-CoV-2 in high containment facilities. Further, in work led by an extremely talented graduate student from Cyprus, Nicolas Shiaelis, and Royal Society fellow Dr Nicole Robb, we have introduced a new method for coronavirus detection based on applying machine learning to images of labelled viruses; this method is currently tested on clinical samples in our local hospital. The assay takes only minutes, with a validation accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of >90%. In contrast, the standard virus-detection methods (using the method RT-PCR) requires ~3 hours from the time of swab receipt to result, and for community testing, transport to these facilities adds substantially to the turnaround time.

We are now working with clinicians on turning our method into a rapid and scalable diagnostic test to detect SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory samples. Such a rapid test can have substantial impact, since widespread testing will be absolutely crucial for disease surveillance and control, even if a safe vaccine becomes available in the next 18 months.

Dr. Kapanidis at the award ceremony of the BBSRC Innovator of the year 2019 award (May 15, 2019)

Pandemics cause unprecedented, incredible and to a certain extent irreparable social, economic, family and personal disruptions. Are pandemics however welcome by scientific and medical communities, as an opportunity for scientific research, technological advancement, testing of new scientific tools and experimenting on new, cutting-edge medical solutions?

A pandemic is never a welcome development; the devastation that it can cause to societies, families and individuals, and especially to the most vulnerable, is something all scientific and medical community is extremely concerned about. Hence the great efforts of scientists to suppress epidemics and prevent them from escalating into pandemics; the successful containment of the first SARS in 2003, Ebola in 2014, and MERS in 2015 were recent examples of these efforts.

The scientific community is also aware that containment will not always work and that we are never too far away from the next pandemic, so having the scientific tools and organisational structures to address a spreading pathogen is of paramount importance. The need to face pandemics with rapid and decisive action to preserve human life focuses the minds and efforts of the scientists in deploying existing defences against the new virus, in innovating to exploit the vulnerabilities of the microscopic enemy, and in repurposing their work to provide necessary material and intellectual support to other vital activities. International cooperation has also hugely important in our efforts to understand, monitor and control the virus.  

There is a sense of duty, public service and social responsibility that drives these contributions, along with the enormous satisfaction of the basic-science researchers to actually see their efforts making a difference in the short term, as opposed to the several years or even decades that it usually takes for fundamental discoveries to translate into tangible societal impact.

Pandemics, as other major events that dramatically reshape human activity, present also opportunities to deliver change for the better. There is no doubt that many of our scientific activities will be transformed for ever after the pandemic, either due to the shifting of our priorities as citizens and scientists, or to avert another ongoing disaster, that of climate change. For example, electronic means for scientists to meet and exchange ideas will help rationalise and minimise global travel for conferences; use of pre-print servers will expand to allow further dissemination of scientific information in a free and rapid manner; and (hopefully) international cooperation and innovation will boost our chances to control climate change.

You have worked also in the USA. How would you compare working in the USA to working in the UK as regards science, scientific research, quick exploitation of the scientific findings and interaction between universities, institutes and the market?

I have spent more than 10 years in the USA in early stages of my career, and this was an experience that shaped much of my approach to science; I was also fortunate to be in the USA during a large expansion of the scientific base and technological development both in academia and industry.

There is no question that US science was and remains extremely strong, powered by large number of research universities and diverse institutes, and there are many aspects to admire and enjoy about it. First and foremost, I enjoyed the vibrant culture of robust and constant questioning and debate about scientific questions and technological challenges (I guessed it satisfied part of my Greek nature!). In such debates, what mattered was whether an idea could survive scientific scrutiny; the status of the persons putting it forward or questioning it was not important. This flattened the hierarchy of “debating societies” and made people realise that they can contribute at any stage of their career, as long as their medium is logical reasoning.

I also liked the fact that the Universities and institutes are full of driven and adventurous young people from all over the world working together; I appreciated the large investment of institutions and the government in basic and applied research, which provided considerable resources to pursue difficult but worthy goals; the opportunity of people to be involved in research from a very young age (e.g., undergraduate research is highly promoted in US research universities); the encouragement of translation of scientific findings into companies and products, that in turn provide high-quality jobs and address societal needs. The PhD was also long enough to allow substantial work to be finished and converted in seminal publications.

On the more negative side, I felt that the overabundance of resources made individuals more wasteful and less focused in their efforts; the time spent in a PhD degree was often way too long, potentially leading to exploitation of some researchers. For academics, the prospect of not achieving tenure (i.e., the ability to stay in their position after very rigorous review) was very stressful and led to loss of work-life balance.

Do you think that Greece is currently in a position -as regards the research infrastructure, the scientific expertise and the human resources- to conduct significant research projects in general, as well as in this specific occasion?

Being away from Greece for a very long time, I can only offer an impression biased from my interactions with colleagues during visits to participate in conferences, from occasional collaboration and participations in reviewing bodies, and from visits to see scientist friends I met in the US and UK.

My impression is that Greece is definitely punching above its weight if you consider the perennial lack of funding and underinvestment in science and technology, and the structural constraints that limit the conduct and administration of science. The country has institutions of excellence such as the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) in Crete and the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, where ground-breaking and pioneering advances have been made the past few years, showing that it is possible to perform research at the highest level in Greece, even during enormously challenging times such as the ones brought by the financial crisis of the past decade. However, there is a huge need to support science and technology much further to expand the network of excellent institutions and raise the profile of research in all institutions. Funding should be more extensive and regular, and should complement European funding; returning scientists should be given the resources to start successful labs that attract external funding; entrepreneurship should be encouraged and supported to drive the formation of dynamic spin-out companies in areas where Greece should be leading in innovation. Some of the funding should be strategic and long-term and should not be just the agenda of a single government, but should rise over politics: where can we build on existing strength? Where can we develop local solutions to local problems? Where can we develop our resources in a sustainable way respectful of our environment?

I also take heart from the herculean efforts of the Greek scientific and medical community during the Covid-19 crisis, which had shown that the country can rise to meet this enormous challenge by working in a methodical and committed fashion.

Dr. Achillefs Kapanidis with a collaborating postdoctoral fellow (Photo by Jun Fan)

What are your personal estimations on the developments for the Covid-19 pandemic? Do you expect a safe vaccine to be produced soon? Do you believe that this virus may trigger other diseases or open new medical and health challenges? Or do you expect that it will soon become another chapter in humanity’s medical history, like for ex. measles, chickenpox and mumps?

As most scientists, I am an optimist, weighing of course the facts and figures in any “guestimate”. Regarding the availability of a safe vaccine, I am optimistic that at least one (and possibly more) will become widely available by the end of 2021, and possibly significantly sooner. For example, the Oxford-led vaccine that is currently in clinical trials is supported by an excellent track record (including the production for vaccines for previous coronaviruses), and there are plans to produce it in billions of doses (even before it is proven to work) to ensure wide availability should the trials prove successful. There are also efforts that use radically new approaches, which may result in pleasant surprises – the important matter here is the diversity of routes to ensure that a few of them will eventually work.

The scale of medical and health challenges associated with the new coronavirus is immense, and uncertainty always forms part of the picture. Since this is a new virus, we don’t know what are the long-term effects of having had the virus and of experiencing a different spectrum of symptoms; we don’t know the effects of the various treatments, as well as any side-effects (long-term or otherwise) that the eventual vaccine will have, and of course we do not know how long any immunity (exposure-induced or vaccine-driven) will last. We will also have to deal with the effect of minimal (or no) health care for non-COVID conditions for an extended period of time, as well as the mental health effects of the lockdown and the “social-distant” world.

This is a traumatic episode in the story of human existence, much as the pandemic of Spanish flu in 1918 and the World Wars – but as with those painful episodes, we will adapt and bounce back, hopefully having have learnt lessons that improve ourselves, our societies, and crucially, our natural environment.

You have lived for many years abroad. What do you miss most about Greece? Is there anything that remains unchanged to a Greek living, even for a long period, abroad?

There are many wonderful things that I miss about Greece, but the most important is family and friends, feeling the warmth of being close to loved ones, experiencing together the joyful moments and being able to help in the difficult moments. Travelling to Greece (when it was straight-forward!) and conferencing technology surely helped keep in touch but there is no substitute for a hug and a relaxed chat over coffee!

What makes more palatable for me living away from Greece is the sizeable and vibrant Greek community at Oxford, which provides some "home" comforts locally. As examples, consider our singing group "Nostos" where for 7 years we sing traditional songs with a modern twist, and our theatre group "Praxis" that has staged 6 plays in modern Greek in the Oxford over the past few years; both efforts are linked with the Oxford University Greek Society. These efforts are in addition to the wonderful and well-attended social and cultural events organised by the Modern Greek Studies Programme of the University, the Greek student communities of both Oxford Universities, and the local Orthodox Church community. Sadly, everything is now on hold due to the pandemic, but we are looking forward to resuming these activities when it is safe to do so.

Living abroad clearly changes one’s attitudes, but I have never felt that my Greek "core" had changed substantially over the years. In fact, being abroad makes you much more aware of your identity and your origins; I believe that the first country you experience when moving away from Greece, is actually Greece itself, since your new home allows you to place your Greek experience in perspective - plus you have to explain to everyone else what the Greek state of mind is and what it is like living in Greece!      

Are you optimistic that, in the coming years or decades, there may be a reverse of the brain drain wave that was recorded in Greece in the past decade, or will, in your opinion, the emigration trend continue in the years to come?

I am indeed optimistic but much more needs to be done. There must be a compelling plan in place to attract back Greeks from abroad, and in fact, people who can contribute to the Greek society regardless of their origin. Greece can be a wonderful place to live, and nostalgic Greeks abroad are yearning to make the journey back "home" – but the risks of relocation need to be reduced to see reversal of the trend.

Judging from my experience at Oxford, we are seeing more people returning to Greece nowadays compared to a few years ago; this is a positive trend for Greece which I think will continue, although this may reflect Brexit-related dynamics and not a global trend. The effective and decisive response to pandemic (so far) by Greece can also be a factor, showing that the Greek state can indeed address formidable challenges. The ability of many workers in the digital economy to work remotely may mean that someone can relocate to Greece while working for companies abroad; further, there is a great opportunity to expand this sector in Greece. The government can do much more to attract talented individuals to Greece by helping the formation of new businesses, by providing more funding to attract and promote scientists to its Universities and institutes, and by encouraging the transformation of the industry sector into a more modern, diverse, and fair entity.

Read also via Greek News Agenda:Greek scientific and research community join forces to combat COVID-19; Greek initiatives at the EU vs Virus innovation hackathon to tackle COVID-19; Dr. Androula Nassiopoulou on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Greece; Meet “Demokritos” the biggest Research Centre of Greece

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