Speakers

• 

  Nikolaos Maghioros Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  

  Nikolaos Maghioros

  Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

  Professor Nikolaos Maghioros serves as Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Development at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he is responsible for shaping academic strategy, advancing curriculum development, promoting institutional modernisation, and ensuring alignment with European Higher Education policies. As President of the University’s Quality Assurance Unit, he oversees both internal and external evaluation processes, accreditation procedures, and compliance with national and European regulatory frameworks.

  He is Professor of Canon and Ecclesiastical Law at the University’s School of Theology. He studied Theology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed his postgraduate and doctoral studies at the School of Canon Law of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, supported by a scholarship from the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration.

  Professor Maghioros has organised and participated in numerous international conferences, research initiatives, and summer schools focusing on Christian dialogue, interreligious communication, religion–state relations, human rights, the interconnection between religion, culture, and sustainable development, and the protection of religious and cultural heritage.

  He has previously served as Head of the School of Theology and as Chairman of the Committee for European Educational Programmes at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Since 2020, he has been Director of the Graduate Programme Religion, Geopolitics and International Security.

  He is a founding member of the International Consortium for Law and Religious Studies and a member of the international expert group “Christian Law Panel of Experts: An Ecumenical Initiative,” the International Association of Canon Law Experts, and the Board of Directors of the Society for the Law of the Eastern Churches.

  Professor Maghioros has represented the Church of Greece at the Council of European Churches as a member of the Working Group on EU legislation and policy. He also served on the Church of Greece Committee for the Study and Monitoring of the Revision of the Framework of Church–State Relations. He is currently a member of the Synodal Committee on Ecclesiastical Education and Training of the Clergy and of the Supervisory Council for Ecclesiastical Education.

• 

  Kyriakos Anastasiadis Rector of Aristotle University (AUTH) & Professor of Cardiac Surgery
  

  Kyriakos Anastasiadis

  Rector of Aristotle University (AUTH) & Professor of Cardiac Surgery

  Kyriakos Anastasiadis, Professor of Cardiac Surgery, is the Rector of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki since 2025.
  He obtained his MD from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1991 and his doctoral thesis (PhD) in 2004. Since 2011 he serves as Head of Cardiothoracic Department at AHEPA University Hospital in Thessaloniki. In 2017 he was elected Deputy Head and between 2020-2024 he served as Head of the Aristotle University School of Medicine and President of the Biomedical Research and Education Special Unit.
  Kyriakos Anastasiadis is a pioneer and key-opinion-leader in the field of minimal invasive extracorporeal technologies, founder of Minimal Invasive Extracorporeal Technologies International Society (MiECTiS). Moreover, he founded in 2015 the Postgraduate Course on Extracorporeal Technologies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Medicine, which is the only accredited program in Greece by the respective European Board. He is fellow of the European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (FETCS), the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), and the American College of Chest Physicians (FCCP). He has been appointed as President of the National Boards of Cardiothoracic Surgery for Northern Greece.
  He has edited 8 books and more than 16 book chapters, while he authored numerous publications which received more than 3,000 citations. He obtained the Best Innovator Award by the Royal Society of Medicine in 2010 and a Honorary Distinction by the Director of Cardiac Centre in Mauritius, Africa after completion of a humanitarian philanthropic mission. He was recognized by the Greek Reporter as one of the Greeks Who Left their Mark in 2018.

• 

  Iakovos Michailidis Vice Rector of International Relations and Outreach, Lifelong Learning and Student Care at Aristotle University
  

  Iakovos Michailidis

  Vice Rector of International Relations and Outreach, Lifelong Learning and Student Care at Aristotle University

  Iakovos Michailidis serves as a Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the School of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). During the academic year 2012-2013, he served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Cyprus. In the academic year 2019-2020, he received a Fulbright scholarship and was a Visiting Researcher at George Washington University in the USA. That same year, he was an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford. He has worked as an Expert for the Western Balkans at the European Economic and Social Committee of the European Union. He is the Vice President of the Supervisory Council of the Greek General State Archives. He is also the head of the Research Center of the Society for Macedonian Studies and a member of many Greek and European scientific networks and organizations, such as the European thematic history network Clioh/Cliohnet. He is an honorary member of the “Parnassos” Literary Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Historical Museum and the Folklife and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia-Thrace

• 

  Ioannis Rekanos Vice Rector of Research and Innovation, Aristotle University
  

  Ioannis Rekanos

  Vice Rector of Research and Innovation, Aristotle University

  Prof. Ioannis T. Rekanos was born in 1970 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He received the Diploma degree (M.Sc.) in Electrical Engineering in 1993 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1998, both from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Thessaloniki, Greece. His doctoral dissertation focused on inverse electromagnetic scattering problems.

  From 2000 to 2002, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Radio Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University), Finland, where he held a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship. Since 2006, he has been a member of the Faculty of Engineering at AUTH. He is currently Professor of Wave Propagation in the Department of Telecommunications, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, AUTH.

  His research interests include electromagnetic and acoustic wave propagation, inverse scattering, computational electromagnetics, fractional calculus, digital signal processing, and biomedical applications. Prof. Rekanos is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece. From 2022 to 2025, he served as Head of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He currently serves as Vice Rector for Research and Innovation at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.