Speakers

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  Costas B. Papazachos Professor of Geophysics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & Member of the Quality Assurance Unit (MODIP), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  

  Costas B. Papazachos

  Professor of Geophysics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & Member of the Quality Assurance Unit (MODIP), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

  Costas B. Papazachos is Professor of Geophysics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he specializes in Physics of the lithosphere, Seismology, and Applied Geophysics. He holds a BSc in Physics, a 2nd BSc in Geology, as well as a PhD in Geophysics from the same institution. His academic career includes appointments as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton University and Meierjurgen Fellow at the University of Oregon, alongside research positions at the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK).
  His research focuses on seismic hazard assessment, wave propagation, site effects, seismotectonics, and active crustal deformation, with a strong emphasis on applications relevant to civil protection and infrastructure resilience. He has coordinated and contributed to numerous national and European projects addressing seismic hazard for critical infrastructures such as dams, pipelines, and hospitals, as well as microzonation studies across Greece and abroad. He is the author of more than 200 scientific publications, with ~8000 citations (h-index 50), and has delivered more than 80 presentations at international conferences, including invited lectures. He has authored a widely used textbook on the Physics of the Earth’s interior, macroseismic atlases, and numerous technical reports, and is a member of the Editorial board of Pure and Applied Geophysics, as well as reviewer for 20+ international journals. He has also participated as a board member in several organizations, including the Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, the Greek Geological Survey, etc. and contributed to the development of Greece’s seismic code.
  He has played a key role in scientific governance and educational policy, serving as Head of the School of Geology, as well as Director of the Geophysical Laboratory at AUTH. He is also a long-standing member of AUTh’s e-Government Steering Committee, as well as of the five members of AUTh’s Quality Assurance Committee, which coordinates QA procedures for the undergraduate, graduate and PhD programs of Aristotle University Thessaloniki.

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  Nikiforos Stamatiadis Professor at the University Kentucky
  

  Nikiforos Stamatiadis

  Professor at the University Kentucky

  Nikiforos Stamatiadis is a Professor at the University of Kentucky since 1990. He graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a Diploma in Rural Surveying Engineering and holds a Doctoral degree in Civil Engineering from Michigan State University. He has been involved both in teaching and research in the field of transportation engineering and highway design since 1984. His research expertise includes highway design, traffic safety, multimodal transportation, and human factors. Dr. Stamatiadis has been successful in securing research funds in these areas from local, national and international agencies. Over the last 25 years, his work in Context Sensitive Solutions has vaulted Dr. Stamatiadis in national and international prominence and he is considered one of the pioneers in this area. He has been awarded two Fulbright Fellowships (Italy and Greece) and has been twice the recipient of the Greek Diaspora Fellowship. He has been instrumental in developing several cooperative agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with universities in Greece and Italy and was awarded the 2022 UK Global Impact Award- Distinguished Faculty Achievements in International Research & Scholarship. Dr. Stamatiadis has an extensive involvement in international activities engaging in teaching and research activities in several countries. He has served as a long-term advisor to UK’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter, an organization focused on delivering engineering solutions in developing countries, and has led student groups to work on projects in Ecuador, Honduras, Cameroon, Malawi, and Rwanda.

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  Ioannis C. Michiotis Member of Economic Chamber of Greece & Head of Strategy and Business Planning at EUCAT S.A
  

  Ioannis C. Michiotis

  Member of Economic Chamber of Greece & Head of Strategy and Business Planning at EUCAT S.A

  Ioannis Michiotis is an economist with extensive experience in the banking and financial sector, exceeding 26 years. He holds postgraduate studies in Financial Analysis for Business Executives from the University of Piraeus. He currently serves as Head of Strategy and Business Planning at EUCAT S.A.,and also as Head of the Financial Sector Committee of the Economic Chamber of Greece and as its Representative at the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education (ETHAE), participating in committees responsible for the evaluation of undergraduate and postgraduate programs. He is also an elected Member of the Board of Directors of the Common Financial Group (CEN/FIN and CLC/FIN) within the European Standardization Organizations (CEN and CENELEC). He has held senior executive roles at Alpha Bank and served as Deputy CEO and Board Member of the National Quality Infrastructure System (NQIS), as well as Chairman of key governance committees. He participates in national committees under the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Finance and is a Fellow Researcher at the University of Piraeus. He holds multiple professional certifications and has an active presence in education, publications, and conferences on standardization, sustainability, and climate change.

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  Maria E. Grigoriou Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Student Affairs & Lifelong Learning, Democritus University of Thrace
  

  Maria E. Grigoriou

  Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Student Affairs & Lifelong Learning, Democritus University of Thrace

  Maria E. Grigoriou is Professor of Developmental Biology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Democritus University of Thrace and Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Student Welfare, Lifelong Learning, and International Relations. She holds a degree in Biology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Department of Biology of the University of Crete, completed in 1993. She subsequently pursued postdoctoral research at the School of Medicine of the University of Crete and the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of FORTH, followed by further postdoctoral work in the Division of Developmental Neurobiology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, now part of the Francis Crick Institute.Her research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing the development and function of the nervous system, as well as on microbiome and molecular biology applications in health and agrobiology. Over the course of her career, she has received several competitive fellowships and distinctions, including scholarships from FORTH, the Medical Research Council, and the European Union’s Marie Curie programmes. In 2013, she received an award for outstanding contribution from A. Dafovski Hospital in Kardzhali, Bulgaria, for the development of its Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory.Professor Grigoriou has held major academic leadership positions, serving as Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics from 2014 to 2018 and as a member of the Senate of Democritus University of Thrace during the same period. Since 2019, she has served as Institutional Coordinator for Erasmus+ at the University. She has coordinated or participated in numerous nationally and European-funded research projects, including initiatives in molecular diagnostics, microbiome applications, synthetic biology, genomic engineering, agrobiology, and regional innovation. Her publication record includes research articles in international peer-reviewed journals in developmental neurobiology, molecular genetics, reproductive biology, and biomedical sciences.

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  Panagiotis Tzionas Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Quality Assurance, International Hellenic University
  

  Panagiotis Tzionas

  Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Quality Assurance, International Hellenic University

  Panagiotis G. Tzionas is a Professor in the Department of Production and Management Engineering, School of Engineering, at the International Hellenic University. His academic field covers Computer Engineering, Digital Signal Processing, and Applications of Control Theory. He holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London, an M.Sc. in Digital Electronics from King’s College, University of London, and a PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Democritus University of Thrace.
  Professor Tzionas has held major leadership positions in Greek higher education. He served as Vice-President of the Governing Committee of the International Hellenic University from 2019 to 2020 and as Rector of the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki from 2017 to 2019. From 2013 to 2017, he served as Deputy Chair and Chair of the Research Committee of the Alexander TEI of Thessaloniki, while from 2008 to 2017 he was Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Chair of the Quality Assurance Unit. In these roles, he supervised European programmes, including Erasmus+, Erasmus Mundus, Socrates, and Leonardo, and coordinated academic planning, undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum development, and institutional evaluation procedures.
  He has also chaired the Ethics Committee and coordinated major institutional actions related to career services, internships, innovation and entrepreneurship, lifelong learning, and academic excellence. His teaching experience includes participation in numerous Greek and international postgraduate programmes, while doctoral dissertations have been completed under his supervision in collaboration with the University of Thessaly and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

  His research output includes more than 110 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences, with over 900 citations. He has extensive experience in research projects in Greece and abroad and has served as reviewer, conference chair, and member of scientific and organising committees. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contemporary Education Theory and Research and has recently been elected an honorary member of the Hellenic Association of Political Scientists.

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  Pericles A. Mitkas President at Hellenic Authority for Higher Education
  

  Pericles A. Mitkas

  President at Hellenic Authority for Higher Education

  Prof. Pericles A. Mitkas has been the President of the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education since February 2020. He received a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and an MSc and PhD in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University, USA.
  Dr. Mitkas was a faculty member at Colorado State University for ten years. In 1999, he joined the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he served as the University Rector (2014-2019). Among other positions, he also served as President of the Balkan University Association (2018-19) and as President of the Black Sea University Network (2018-21).
  His research interests include databases and knowledge bases, data mining and machine learning, software agents and intelligent systems, and bioinformatics. Prof. Mitkas has been the coordinator of numerous research projects in Greece and the US, several of which involved industrial partners.

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  Athanasios Mavromatis Assistant Professor at School of Agriculture & Member of the Quality Assurance Unit (MODIP), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh)
  

  Athanasios Mavromatis

  Assistant Professor at School of Agriculture & Member of the Quality Assurance Unit (MODIP), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh)

  Athanasios Mavromatis is Professor of Cytogenetics & Plant Breeding at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He graduated from the Department of Agriculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued his studies at M.Sc. and PhD on Genetics & Breeding in AUTH. He followed postdoctoral studies and research on the topic of in vitro regeneration and somatic clonal variation using tissue culture techniques and cytogenetical methods in the Catholique University of Leuven (Belgium) and in the University of Picardie (Jules Vern – Amiens) (France) worked on subjects related to cytogenetic & biotechnological applications. He has significant and multidimensional professional experience, having worked as head of the technical department of the multinational company DU PONT, as a Senior researcher at the Research Center of the Greek Sugar Industry (Y.B.E.P). In academia, he worked as a lecturer and then as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Agriculture of the University of Thessaly, while he followed his career as Associate Professor and since today as Full Professor, in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Dr. Athanasios Mavromatis has published up to 250 scientific research works in international SCI journals and written communications. He has also served as an external reviewer and as Guest Editor in international SCI scientific journals. He has organized and actively participated in numerous scientific national and international conferences, research initiatives and congresses focused on exploitation of Plant Genetic Resources, Breeding Methodology and selection schemes for food quality and nutritional traits.
  He has significant experience in International and National Research Programs, participating as a scientific manager in 18 research programs and as a collaborator in another 14 programs. His research activity focuses on modern plant breeding methodology, in vitro techniques, organic breeding and improvement of endemic plant species, chromosome engineering, fluorometric analysis and applied Biotechnology in Crop plants.
  He has also participated as a board member in several vectors & organizations. He was President of Hellenic Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding, General Secretariat of HSGPB, Member of International Cotton Advisory Committee, Member of International Institute for Beet Research (I.I.R.B), Member of European Committee of EUCARPIA and National Representative of EIPGRI. He is one of the members of AUTh’s Quality Assurance Committee, participating both in internal and external evaluation processes, accreditation procedures, and compliance with national and European regulatory frameworks.