Nikolaos Papaioannou
Deputy Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports
Nikolaos G. Papaioannou studied at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
He then began working on his doctoral dissertation, which he defended in 1991. In 1995, he was elected Lecturer at the Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy in the Department of Veterinary Medicine. In 2012, he was elected Full Professor. From 2013 until he assumed the duties of General Secretary for Higher Education, he served as Director of the Laboratory of Pathology.
He served as President of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 2017 to 2019. On June 11, 2019, he was elected Rector of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, assuming office on September 1 of the same year.
He has been trained in the laboratories of Pathological Anatomy at the veterinary schools of Zurich, Utrecht, and Wisconsin in the United States of America. His teaching work is related to the field of pathology, while his scientific and research work focuses on the study of the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases as well as the diagnosis of neoplastic conditions. Mr. Papaioannou has coordinated numerous Greek and international competitive research projects and has published a large number of scientific articles in distinguished international journals. He has supervised seven (7) doctoral dissertations, served as a member of three-member advisory committees for eighteen (18) theses, and participated as a member of seven-member examination committees for thirty-seven (37) doctoral dissertations, both in Greece and abroad.
In May 2023, he accepted the Prime Minister’s proposal to be included on the State ballot of New Democracy for the 2023 national elections.
From July 29, 2024, to March 14, 2025, he served as General Secretary for Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs, and Sports.
On March 15, 2025, he was sworn in as Deputy Minister of Education, Religious Affairs, and Sports, responsible for Higher Education.