Five young Greek scientists distinguished in the areas of Applied and Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Medicine and Biomedicine were awarded the Scientific Awards of the Bodossaki Foundation. The event, which was held at the Ceremonial Hall of the University of Athens, was attended by the President of the Republic, Mr. Carolos Papoulias, while the awards were presented by the Rector of the University of Athens, Professor Ch. Kittas.
The institution of the Bodossaki Foundation Scientific Awards was created in 1993, within the scope of the Foundation?s social welfare aims, which pay special attention to the educational sector and support Greek scientists around the world. The aim of these awards is to encourage and reinforce the creative work done by young Greek scientists and to reward them for their continuous and consistent endeavour in promoting science. The awards, which also include a 22,000 EURO prize for each scientist, are awarded to Greeks under the age of 40 years, for exceptional performance in their discipline.
According to Mr. Dimitris VLASTOS, President of the Bodossaki Foundation, ?the numerous candidacies of Greek scientists for the Awards to this day, show that there is an abundant production of intellectual work which is of exceptionally high level and is recognized by all leading intellectual institutions around the world, where Greek scientists excel.?
The Scientific Awards 2008 were conferred upon the following scientists:
- George-Marios B.-G. Aggeletos, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the Social Sciences sector (discipline of Economics/Political Economy/Political Science). Mr. Aggeletos? research covers various subjects related to macroeconomic theory such as public debt, income redistribution, economic crises and information, economic crises and economic policy, expectations and economic fluctuations.
- Michalis K. Dafermos, Reader at the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics of the University of Cambridge, for the Natural Sciences sector (discipline of Mathematics). Mr. Dafermos? research focuses mainly on fundamental issues of general relativity, investigation of natural problems based solely on mathematical proof, and improved mathematical understanding of black holes.
- Georgios A. Kontopidis, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Thessaly, for the sector of Biomedicine (Targeted Development of Pharmaceutical Substances). Mr. Kontopidis? research focuses on the targeted development of pharmaceutical substances, mainly new medicines against cancer.
- Nikolaos K. Paraghios, Professor of Applied Mathematics at Εcole Centrale de Paris, for the sector of Applied Natural Sciences (discipline of Theories, Methods and Techniques, Biomedical Applications of Informatics and Telecommunications). Mr. Paraghios? research focuses on the creation of mathematical models and software solutions related to vision, particularly the reproduction of human vision through computers.
- Eleni Th. Tzavara, Senior Research Scientist at the INSERM Institute of Paris, for the area of Biomedicine (sector of Targeted Development of Pharmaceutical Substances). Ms. Tzavara?s research activity focuses on neuropharmacology, neurology and systems neuroscience aimed at the production of new medicines for the more effective treatment of psychiatric diseases, mainly depression, manic-depression and schizophrenia.