Distinctions & Awards

Intro

UAegean students, graduates and Faculty members excel in professional or research fields accenting the high level of studies (on an under and post graduate or doctoral level) UAegean offers and the width of the cognitive and research subjects in which they are initiated into and which are recognized by professional and research organizations on a national and international level, consist intriguing indicators of the ongoing development of the University of the Aegean.

Both students and the academic staff of UAegean, through systematic cooperation and interaction, which are inextricable parts of the University’s culture, receive awards for their research activities thus setting the preconditions for the continuation of an upward course actively involving all members of the Aegean University community.

Our students

The green start-up ECOCup came first in the final round of the SUP Free Hackathon competition for a single-use plastic free Greece. On 12^th June, the final round of the SUP Free Innovation Lab took place in Halkidiki. The five teams chosen last December from the 34 competing in the SUP Free Hackathon evolved, developed and presented their progress in the context of the 5-month support workshop. First prize went to the business idea ECOCup, http://ecocup.io ECOCup started off as a green idea of Thanasis Koukoulis and Katerina Katsaouni, students of the entrepreneurship course of the Department of Environment. After their qualification in the first phase of the SUP Free Hackathon competition, the team was also joined by Giorgos Antonopoulos, Naval Architect Engineer with a MSc from the Department of Environment and Giannis Ioannidis Brandt, Computer Scientist/Programmer. ECOCup is developing an online platform where cafés and consumers network with the aim of reducing single-use cups made of plastic (and other materials). Building on their studies and background in environmental sciences, the team members developed an economically sustainable business idea that has environmental protection at the core of its mission by reducing the consumption of raw materials and waste production. The ECOCup team profile:

Thanasis Koukoulis
BSc in Environmental Sciences, MSc in Digital Innovation & Start-Up Entrepreneurship

Katerina Katsaouni
BSc in Environmental Sciences; Environmental Educator; social media strategist; UI Developer

Giannis Ioannidis-Brandt
BSc in Computer Science Software Engineer, MSc Interactive Hardware and Software Technologies

Georgios Antonopoulos
BSc in Naval Engineering, MSc in Environmental Sciences, Product Manager; UI-UX and Web Design

The SUP-free hackathon event organization The event is supported by Lidl Greece in collaboration with the A C Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the tech and innovation company, CrowdPolicy, under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment and Energy. The final took place at the Sani Resort in Halkidiki.

Our startup ECOCup, took the first place on the SUP Free Hachathon Contest.

The contest is organised by Lidl Hellas & A C Laskaridis Charitable Foundation

The silver award in the competition of innovative ecological products ECOTROPHELIA 2020 received the product O-LIVE, which was created by the group of students of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the University of the Aegean in collaboration with the company “E.I.Papadopoulos-SA-Biscuits Food Industry”.

The competition was performed online on 18/10/2020 with the participation of 13 teams from 13 European countries, which had received the first award in their national competition in each country held last month. In Greece, the Competition is held every year by the Federation of Hellenic Food Industries-SEVT, with the participation of student groups from all University Institutions in the country.

The Greek group consisted of undergraduate students Ilias Konstantinos, Kavanozi Nikoletta, Kokonozi Zacharoula, Bousdouni Panoraia and Toliopoulos Christos, with Supervisor-Coordinator the Assistant Professor on Human Nutrition Koutelidaki Antonio and the support of phD-candiade Konstantinidi Melina and the postgraduate Kapolou Katerina.

“O-live” is an innovative filled breadstick, which is included in the category of ready-to-eat snacks. The innovation of the product lies in the presence of olive seed/pomace flour, which is a by-product of the olive oil industry. The exploitation of a by-product with about 200,000 tons of production in Greece reflects the ecological profile of the product, which is particularly enhanced by the biodegradable packaging. The flour produced from these by-products has a high nutritional value and a high content of antioxidant phenolic compounds, with potential bio-functional properties. Apart from the use of mixture of flours with high nutritional value, the uniqueness of the product lies in the fact that it is the first filling breadstick, produced by rolling technology, utilizes lyophilization, and combines 5 flavors of 100% Greek products of traditional origin, inspired by the Mediterranean diet (Strawberry-lotus-aronia, Beetroot-pumpkin seed, Spinach-pumpkin, Tahini-hazelnut-carob honey, Yogurt-orange-rosehip).

The final phase of the 5th Panhellenic University Student Competition for Innovation and Entrepreneurship “Junior Achievement Greece” took place on Thursday, May 30, 2019 at the “Hellenic Cosmos” Cultural Center of the Foundation of the Hellenic World.

Out of a total of 80 ideas submitted to the Panhellenic Competition, 20 qualified for the final phase of JA Start Up 2019. At the event held in the presence of the President the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) and many other personalities of the academic and business community, 20 student groups from Universities from all over the country presented particularly innovative business ideas.

The University of the Aegean was represented by two student groups, InnoCity and BadasTrip, under the guidance of the Assistant Professor of the Department of Business Administration Dr. Ioannis Kinias.

After the evaluation of the business plans, 3 first cash prizes and two subsequent themes were awarded. The InnoCity student group of the University of the Aegean won the Thematic Award for the “Social Impact”. InnoCity covers the communication gap that exists between the Municipality and conscientious and ecologically aware citizens, by creating an application, where the citizen posts the problems he faces in his area and the municipality is immediately informed about them. InnoCity consists of Ioanna Mamaki, Christina Kitsa, Dimitris Tsoupakis and Vassilis Kassikos.

Students of the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, members of the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) Community of the University of the Aegean and of the Microsoft Student Partners community participated and won second position in the European Contest “The Galileo & Copernicus Innovation Challenge” which is a 48-hour hackathon hosted by the European Commission during the EU Space Week 2019, held at Helsinki, Finland.

The students honoured were: Kapsalis Athanasios, Mitzelos Zaharias, Potaris Nikolaos and Christou Christos.

Students of the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, members of the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) Community and of the Society of Observational Astronomy of the University of the Aegean, participated and won second position in the European Contest “Copernicus Hackathon Leicester – Food Security and Resilience” held in Leicester, UK.

Participants representing the FOSS Community and of the Society of Observational Astronomy of the University of the Aegean: Keramidis Panagiotis, Mitzelos Zaharias.

The research team consisting of members of the Artificial Intelligence Lab (AILab) of the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering of the University of the Aegean and of the Image Processing Lab (GTI) of the Polytechnic of Madrid won first prize at the Lifelog Moment Retrieval organised in the context of ImageCLEF, at CLEF2018

(https://www.imageclef.org/2018/lifelog).

The scientific team of Postgraduate Students of “Shipping, Transportation and International Trade” of the Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport (TNEY) of the University of the Aegean won the 3rd Prize of the Panhellenic Scientific Competition of Transport Association in memory of the late NTUA Professor Mr. Dimitriou Tsampoula, for his many years of work and contribution to the development of the Greek transport system.

The award is an important scientific distinction of the young scientists of the University of the Aegean and the Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport in particular.

In a brilliant ceremony during the International Conference “Combined Freight Transport”, which took place in the framework of the 7th International Exhibition “Logistics-Supply Chain 2019”, the scientific team TNEY-NAME consisting of:

Pervana Ioannis, postgraduate student of “Shipping, Transport and International Trade”,
Lioumi Vassiliki, postgraduate student of “Shipping, Transport and International Trade”,
Koutsouradi Evangelia, postgraduate student of “Shipping, Transport and International Trade”.

received an award for its work on “Perspective of development of Combined National and International Freight Transport (Intermodal transport) of the Country – Obstacles, Challenges, Proposals”.

The Panhellenic Scientific Competition “Dimitrios Tsamboulas” is held every year on a national scale following an open invitation. The contestants are undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral students and new graduates, if they have received the degree within 3 academic years prior to the date of announcement of the respective Call.

Eva Litina, PhD Candidate of the Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport of the University of the Aegean, was the winner of the Competition for the best scientific work, at the Conference of the International Bar Association (IBA) in the field of Maritime Law and Transport Law.

Εva Litina’s scientific paper on “A navigation in the uncharted waters of different legal systems: the case of enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in the Greek territory” deals with the problems that arise during the execution of foreign arbitral awards to resolve maritime disputes in Greece. It was selected by the IBA judges for award as the best work in the field of Maritime Law and Transport Law.

IBA is the largest international organization of lawyers and bar associations in the world. Its members exceed 180 bar associations and 80,000 lawyers internationally. The IBA Conference is organized every year, covering all areas of law, with about 200 sessions.

Eva Litina’s award is another important international scientific distinction of the young scientists of the University of the Aegean and, in particular, of the Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport.

30th September 2019

The Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the University of the Aegean participated in the “International Conference on Food Science, Technology and Nutritional Science” held on 23^rd and 24^th September 2019 in Barcelona, Spain on the theme “Recounting the latest innovations in Food Science, Technology and Nutritional Science”. The Department was represented through three projects which were presented in the form of posted announcements and which received three best posters awards. The projects awarded were:

“Optimization of green ultrasound assisted extraction process for recovering of apple juice by-product streams bio-actives and their exploitation toward the development of novel functional foods”, by Biagki T., Siopi V., Koutelidakis A., and Dimou Ch. The project was presented by Dr. Demou Charalampia, who teaches Food Bioprocessing, with the participation of students, i.e., Biagki T., and Siopi V.
“Association of polyphenols’ intake with Mediterranean diet adherence and anthropometric indices in a sample of healthy adults” by Kapolou A., Riggopoulos N., and Koutelidakis A. The project was presented by the student Kapolou A.
“Association of functional foods consumption, Mediterranean diet adoption and anthropometric characteristics with anxiety and depression indexes in a sample of Greek adults”, by Elmaliklis I., Miserli E., Filipatou M., Tapaskou T., Tsikouras I., Dimou Ch., Koutelidakis A. The project was presented by Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Koutelidakis Antonis with the participation of students, i.e., Elmaliklis I., Miserli E., Filipatou M., and Tapaskou T.

The Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the University of the Aegean participated in the European Students Competition of eco-innovative food products, Ecotrophelia 2019 and received first prize for the “Best Presentation” of the “Robustus” product, establishing its status as a Department which has the knowledge to produce pilot, competitive and innovative products along with traditional local products.

The Department of Food Science and Nutrition was represented by 2 groups of students with 2 different products:

The product called “Grap e Roll” (a dessert) was presented by students Kondolambados G., Biagki T., Pagonidou I., who were supervised by Associate Professor and Head of the Department, Karantonis Charalambos;
The product called “Robustus” (a beverage) was presented by students Kapolou A., Kokkoni E., Kolaklidi A., who were supervised by Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Koutelidakis Antonis.

For the first time ever Greek students have participated in the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Bootcamp

The participation of a group of Greek students and professors at the entrepreneurship accelerator at the University of Berkeley in January 2019 was successfully completed. The Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp is an educational course on entrepreneurship for selected students and researchers from all over the world, who present and develop their ideas supported by professors, mentors and investors from Silicon Valley and the wider area of the San Francisco Bay.

The first winners of Aegean Startups (students from the University of the Aegean and the National Technical University of Athens) as well as researchers from the University of the Aegean participated in the Berkeley Bootcamp together with 120 participants from 15 countries. Greek students and researchers participated in three ideas-teams which were among the best proposals presented:

MyNequin, software for the creation of a 3D model for buying clothes on the internet (Leader: UC Berkeley, Team: Greece, US, India)
Social Food, an application allowing restaurant leftovers to be provided to socially supported families (Leader: University of the Aegean, Παν. Αιγαίου, Τeam: US, South Korea, Japan)
VR Community, a digital community based on virtual reality (Leader: Sunway University, Malaysia, Team: US, Greece, Malaysia)

Responsible for Aegean Startups, Ioannis Charalambidis, Associate Professor at the University of the Aegean

For more information visit: http://www.aegean-startups.gr/

Maria Sotiropoulou graduated from the Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, in 2007, and in 2008 she undertook the Department’s M.Sc. in Environmental & Ecological Engineering. Following exams, she was awarded a scholarship for her Ph.D. studies in Environmental Radioactivity & Radioecology at the Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Since 2016, she has been working as a post-doc researcher at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), Switzerland.

Dimitra Petza is a PhD candidate in Fisheries Management and Policy at the Department of Marine Sciences of the University of the Aegean, under the supervision of Professor Stelios Katsanevakis.

Her PhD research focuses on the study of the area-based fisheries management measures (ABFMs) in the light of Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, Maritime Spatial Planning and area-based Marine Conservation. She is strongly interested in identifying and assessing the contribution of ABFMs to marine conservation, under the Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) concept as proposed by the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). She has published widely on these topics and participated in a series of research projects.

Dimitra Petza’s research outcomes have been acknowledged and used as scientific documentation for fisheries management and policy decision-making by the European Commission/ DG Maritime Affairs & Fisheries, the Ministry of Rural Development & Food/ DG Fisheries, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs/ D Fisheries Control, the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service, Research Institutes and NGOs.

Recently, Dimitra Petza’s research has drawn the attention of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management Fisheries Expert Group (IUCN-CEM-FEG). In May 2019, she was invited to participate at the “Expert Meeting on OECMs in the Marine Capture Fishery Sector”³, co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the IUCN-CEM-FEG and the European Bureau for Conservation and Development, in collaboration with the CBD and the Nordic Council of Ministers, held in Rome at FAO Headquarters. Since then Dimitra provides her expertise as a member of the IUCN World Commission of Protected Areas Specialist Group on OECMs for the development and publication of relevant methodologies and guidelines.

Fig.1. View from the Nigeria Room at FAO Headquarters in Rome during the session of the “Expert Meeting on OECMs in the Marine Capture Fishery Sector”, co-organized by the FAO, the IUCN-CEM-FEG and the EBCD, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the CBD and the Nordic Council of Ministers. ®FAO

Fig.2. Kim Friedman (FAO), Jake Rice (Department of Fisheries & Oceans of Canada, IUCN-CEM-FEG) and Dimitra Petza ( University of the Aegean) during the presentation of the background documents at the “Expert Meeting on OECMs in the Marine Capture Fishery Sector”, co-organized by the FAO, the IUCN-CEM-FEG and the EBCD, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the CBD and the Nordic Council of Ministers. ®FAO

Our graduates

School of Engineering

Georgios Efthimiou graduated from the Department of Financial and Management Engineering of the University of the Aegean in 2009. In 2016 he joined Ticketmaster, a world-wide leader in sport and event ticketing solutions. For the last almost 2.5 years he holds a Product Manager position at the Ticketmaster Sport Tournaments division. After a set of successful deliveries of world class tournaments within 2019, including Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup and Wimbledon, he was awarded (within 2020) with the Eamonn O’Connor Award 2019.

This award recognizes and rewards individuals who have made an exceptional difference to Ticketmaster’s International business. All of these people have gone above and beyond with some remarkable achievements to their names. The Eamonn O’Connor Award was first launched in 2014 to commemorate and celebrate the life of the former Managing Director of Ticketmaster Ireland. The winners of the award are selected for their significant achievements in all company’s areas. While every employee is able to nominate another employee, the final decision is made by a panel of Ticketmaster International Executives based on an international feedback.

As stated in the company’s official announcement: George had an incredibly busy time last year playing a central role in the delivery of three major tournaments, the Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup and Wimbledon. His ability to juggle various responsibilities (from product manager to project delivery manager to technical analyst and operations manager) while still delivering on project timeframes and always exceeding expectations enabled these tournaments to be as successful as they were. George has been described by his colleagues as “a walking encyclopedia of knowledge” when it comes to the Sport XT platforms. He has a positive, can-do approach to work, faces every situation with a smile and is a real motivator to anyone he works with.

Dimitris Seleridis, a Graduate Student of the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering of the Polytechnic School of Engineering of our University, was participating in the team that excelled in the internationally prestigious competition: James Dyson Awards National Competition NL.

The team, consisting of Martin Steffner, Emilio De Jonghe, Orelio De Jonghe, Dimitrios Seleridis, Rick Cazemier, Thor Gerard, namely six Delft University students, submitted a proposal for a home audio system with the distinctive title: Ammos- Crystal clear Audio and many innovative advantages, detaching the Dutch Edition of JDA for 2020.

For more information, please visit:

https://www.jamesdysonaward.org/nl-NL/2020/project/ammos-crystal-clear-audio/

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2020/tu-delft/tu-delft-students-win-james-dyson-award-2020-with-easy-to-repair-glass-speaker/

School of Environment

Stelios Plaioniotis graduated from the Department of Environment, University of the Aegean in 2001. He completed his M.Sc. and PhD studies in London, UK, where he had worked until 2008 before moving to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There Stelios established, NEA POLIS, a company specializing in Environmental Design and Engineering. In January 2015, NEA POLIS featured as the “Success Story of the Month” in the European Commission’s Portal on European Small-Medium-Enterprises (SMEs)

Dr. Vasilis Gerovasileiou graduated from the Department of Marine Sciences of the University of the Aegean in 2006. He holds a MSc from the same University Department and a PhD from the Department of Biology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2014). During his studies and research activities he received 10 awards and distinctions. Since 2014 he works in the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), involved in national and EU-funded projects and the National Research Infrastructure LifeWatchGreece. Recently, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Environment of the Ionian University.

He has participated in more than 45 projects (in two as principal investigator or work package leader). He is an author of 73 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, 13 special editions and 145 conference contributions. His research focuses on the study of marine biodiversity. His underwater studies in marine caves (Fig. 1) brought light to a considerable number of species that were reported for the first time from Greek waters^[1]^,[2], as well as several species new to science^[3].

In 2016, together with other researchers from around the world, he founded the World Register of marine Cave Species (WoRCS) (Fig. 2), which is a thematic species database of the World Register for Marine Species (WoRMS) aiming to create a comprehensive database of species known from marine cave environments worldwide^[4].

He serves as a scientific consultant for international organizations for the protection of the marine environment (e.g., UNEP/MAP-RAC/SPA και IUCN). Since 2020 he is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Mediterranean Marine Science and serves as a national expert on marine biodiversity for the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy.

[1] Gerovasileiou V, Chintiroglou C, Vafidis D, Koutsoubas D, Sini M, Dailianis T, Issaris Y, Akritopoulou E, Dimarchopoulou D, Voultsiadou E (2015) Census of biodiversity in marine caves of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Mediterranean Marine Science, 16: 245-265. https://doi.org/10.12681/mms.1069

[2] Pisera A, Gerovasileiou V (2021) Lithistid demosponges of deep-water origin in marine caves of the north-eastern Mediterranean Sea. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8: 630900. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.630900

[3] Lage A, Gerovasileiou V, Voultsiadou E, Muricy G (2019) Taxonomy of Plakina (Porifera: Homoscleromorpha) from Aegean submarine caves, with description of three new species and new characters for the genus. Marine Biodiversity, 49: 727-747. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-018-0847-z

[4] Gerovasileiou V, Martínez A, Álvarez F, Boxshall G, Humphreys W, Jaume D, Becking L, Muricy G, van Hengstum P, Dekeyzer S, Decock W, Vanhoorne B, Vandepitte L, Bailly N, Iliffe T (2016) World Register of marine Cave Species (WoRCS): a new Thematic Species Database for marine and anchialine cave biodiversity. Research Ideas and Outcomes, 2: e10451. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.2.e10451

School of Social Sciences

Manos Lagoudakis is a Department of Geography graduate from the University of the Aegean (class 2002). Since 2011, he has been working at ESA’s Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN/ESA), first as a national trainee and then as a contractor working on satellite image processing and data visualisation.

As Mr Lagoudakis mentions:

Working with data in the frame of ESRIN/ESA

The amount of spatial information that our society produces every minute is mind blowing. Satellites, home devices, smartphone sensors, social media, university research, fieldwork and government agencies all produce vast amounts of spatial data that are waiting to be discovered, processed and analyzed. All one has to do is ask the right questions and look for the spatial connections.

The last step of this process is presenting these findings – an aspect that is often underestimated. Here are some important things to consider:

What is the context? What are the key messages? Who is the audience? Is the information time-sensitive? What are the selected outreach channels? What is the role of social media? How do we support the interaction and feedback from the audience?

Answering these questions is at the core of our work at the data visualisation office at ESA’s Centre for Earth Observation. Our job is to underline the importance of satellites in modern society by demonstrating the application of geospatial data in the context of climate change, operational services and everyday life. Using the outreach channels of the agency, we deliver information to millions of people, including students, scientists and politicians. These data not only have to be precise, but also visually attractive and engaging”.

Caption: Nitrogen dioxide levels over Europe during national lockdowns. Comparison with 2019. Image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel-5P data (2019-2020), processed by KNMI, ESA – https://bit.ly/2WCjoqU

Caption: Record-breaking temperatures, drought and wind resulted in the ferocious bushfires that swept across Eastern Australia in January 2020. Image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel-2 data (2020), processed by ESA – https://bit.ly/3jkBQhr

Nadina Livaditi graduated from the Department of Social Anthropology and History at the University of the Aegean in Mytilene in 2007. Since then the field of Social Anthropology and the island of Lesvos are stable points of reference for her personal and research interests.

During her postgraduate studies in the MA program “Architectural Design, Space, Culture” at the National Technical University of Athens, she conducted her first field research in the former Agiasos Sanatorium in Lesvos and examined through a interdisciplinary approach the transformation of the Sanatorium, and later Hospice for Neuro-Disability, to a Shelter for Unaccompanied Minors in Lesvos.

She worked as social anthropologist for the first time in the Program of Medical Services Extended for NGO PRAKSIS in Athens. In the summer 2015, against the background of the refugee crisis (2015-2016), she moved to Lesvos as an envoy of the same NGO, where she undertook several tasks as a Local Coordinator of a range of programs which focused on the Protection Assistance for Children and Vulnerable people on the Move in Lesvos. Simultaneously, she participated in the research program P.R.E.S.S (Provision of Refugee Education and Support Scheme), funded by the Hellenic Open University, where she conducted field research in Lesvos focusing on the refugee’s educational needs. From December 2017 till April 2018, she took part in a research project funded by NGO Safe Passage UK focusing on the functionality of family reunification procedures under the Dublin III Regulation and the implications for unaccompanied children in Greece. Since April 2018 and in collaboration with the Department of Geography at the University of the Aegean, she works as a senior researcher in a European Research Program RESPOND – Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond coordinated by Uppsala University.

Following her research interests and being always interested in the topic of borderline on the island of Lesvos, she started in December 2019 my Ph.D. thesis in the Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean, which examines various aspects of “reception” and “protection” of Unaccompanied Minors in Lesvos.

As Justine Arvanitis mentions: “I had the luck and was granted the opportunity to make Mytilene my second home during the years I have been studying the science that changed my life, Anthropology. The University of the Aegean became my second family with passionate professors, concepts that changed how we conceptualized society and the world around us, and with fellow students with whom we continued the theoretical discussions outside the amphitheater. I expressed myself creatively by participating in the student theater group “Prova”, completed my Erasmus studies in Ireland, and attended eight interdepartmental courses from the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication due to my cinematic inclination”

A year after she graduated from the Department of Social Anthropology and History, and Communication she started a postgraduate course in Documentary, at the Department of Cultural Technology so she returned to her second home and to this valuable family of hers for her second degree. In parallel, she had already started volunteering at festivals until she was offered a job at one of them.

Thus, during the last seven years, she has been working for the Syros International Film Festival, undertaking, among other things, the coordination of film workshops and actively contributing to the integration of the festival in the local community. Being fascinated by documentary, she did not limit her horizons, choosing at the same time to gain experiences in the field of fiction. She worked in four film productions, directed a short film and did an internship at the Nu Boyana Film Studios in Bulgaria.

She is currently working as an oral history researcher for “istorima”, a program implemented with a founding donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, aiming at the creation of a large Greek oral history archive. Her next goal is to study Visual Anthropology abroad in order to continue exploring the many different ways in which anthropological research can be conducted, a process that brings the researcher one step closer to himself/herself.

Ιn the framework of the European program “RurAction: Social Entrepreneurship in Structural Weak Rural Areas”, a field research was conducted in the Austrian NUTS3 region of Mühlviertel by the PhD candidate of the Department of Sociology, Chatzichristos Georgios, under the supervision of Pr. Nagopoulos Nikolaos. The research was completed with two scientific publications in international scientific journals. The research was conducted in collaboration with a European network of researchers and the support of the social enterprise OTELO Egen. The article, entitled “Regional Institutional Arenas for Social Innovation: A Mixed Methods Research, presents the potentialities of institutional and social innovation in the Mühlviertel region, as well as the dynamics of governance. Respectively, the article entitled “Social Entrepreneurship and Institutional Sustainability: Insights from an Embedded Social Enterprise”, by drawing data from the OTELO network, presents the embeddedness of social enterprises in the institutional framework and how this process can enhance institutional sustainability. The results of the research are part of a broader comparative study, the results of which will be soon published.

Manolis Babatsikos is a Lead 3D Artist and Business Development Executive with strong interest on 3D Medical Animation projects specializing on simulating surgical operations of all types. He started his education and career roadmap with his BSc studies on Cultural Technology and Communication in University of Aegean in Mytilene and his MSc on Digital Visual Effects in University of Kent, UK. Then, he started hunting a personal dream-target on how to combine new technologies of 3D Graphics visualization with the Medical world and create interactive applications and videos for many professional and educational fields in Healthcare.

His career consists of 4 different areas. He owns 2 years industry experience as Visual Effects Artist in LEGO Games, where he was working for Warner bros. and was part of the Bafta award as VFX Artist, more than 5 year- experience on working for various medical animation projects and collaborations with professionals in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and well-known surgeons and finally his multiple year experience on 3D Animated Short films & advertisements around the world.

His targets warmed up with the collaboration with ORamaVR, where he was responsible as Business Development Director to accomplish any challenge in the VR Medical training for young surgeons and trainees.

Furthermore, he fulfilled his dream to create his own company named 3DMedWorld with main objective to create outstanding 3d medical animation projects and serve the Healthcare needs. From start of 2019 his company apart from young freelancer enthusiasts with main target to deliver outstanding results globally.

Christoforos Somarakis was born in Heraklion, Crete and graduated from the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication in 2006. Being stimulated by his undergraduate studies and following his love about the programming and the Web, he designs and implements at a pretty young age his first commercial project, Foititelia.gr the first web portal for University students in Mitilini providing plenty of information and services. With his first profits he enrolls to the master program of the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication and in 2008 he graduates among the first of his class with Honors. The same year he begins to design his second idea along with his friend Niko Matsaggo also a student from the same University. The idea was to create the first portal for Online food delivery called Fagi.gr and so they did. At the beginning the portal was hosting few shops from the town of Mitilini only. However, this changed dramatically the next few years. Today, Fagi.gr is one of the most well-known portals for online food delivery including stores from more than 12 regions in whole Greece and fulfilling more than half a million orders per month.

School of Social Sciences

Michalis Spitieris, graduate of the Department of Mathematics, was awarded the Best New Statistics Award of the Hellenic Statistical Institute (ESI) for 2018. The award was instituted in 2005 following a presentation by the honorary member of the ESI, Professor N. Balakrishnan, Canada) and is awarded annually since 2006.

Mr. Spitieris’ thesis which is based on his postgraduate dissertation that he submitted for the Postgraduate Program, “Statistics & Actuarial – Financial Mathematics”, entitled “A new approach to improved substitutions of multivariate incomplete data” was presented at a special session of the 31st Panhellenic Conference on Statistics, which was held by the University of Thessaly, in Lamia, Greece, in May 2018.

Dr. Christos Mercatas is the winner of the Elenio Award for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Statistics during 2017-2018. The announcement was made on June 1st during the closing ceremony of the 32nd Panhellenic Conference on Statistics, which was organized in Ioannina by the University of Ioannina, from 30th May to 1st June 2019.

The award is granted by the Hellenic Statistical Institute (ESI), to doctoral dissertations conducted in Greece or abroad in the area of Statistics, by PhD candidates of Greek origin

The award includes an invitation to present the Doctoral Thesis at the Panhellenic Conference of Statistics of ESI, as well as a money prize and a free two-year subscription to ESI.

Dr. Mercatas, who has been working as a Postdoctoral Researcher for a year at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the USA, completed with “Excellent” his dissertation entitled “Bayesian Nonparametrics and Applications” at the Department of Statistics and Actuarial-Financial Mathematics, under the supervision of Professor of the Department, Mr. Spyridon Chatzispyrou.

School of Business

During the last 35 years, the Department of Business Administration (DBA) occupies a prominent position within the Greek Higher Education industry and within the job market. Entrepreneurs, businessmen, public managers, and academics, pursing an academic career in Greece and abroad, can be found among its alumni. Such is the case of Dr Myropi Garri, a DBA alumna, who is pursuing an academic career abroad. Her Chian roots along with the high educational standards of the DBA, motivated her decision to study in the University department of her birthplace. Today she feels proud and vindicated for this decision. After receiving her Phd degree in International Strategic Management from the DBA of the University of the Aegean, Myropi was employed as an Adjunct Lecturer in the same department. Having developed a competitive portfolio of knowledge, skills, competences and experiences while studying and working in the University of the Aegean, she quickly moved to the UK where she joined University of Portsmouth, initially as a Lecturer and soon after as a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management. She lives and works in the UK for the last 8 years. During this period of time she has developed a remarkable academic record. Parts of her research have been published in highly ranked peer reviewed academic journals, in edited volumes and in book chapters. She has organized, participated and presented her work in international scientific conferences, she has developed an international research network. She teaches in a variety undergraduate and postgraduate courses/programs. She is a Phd supervisor and she has occupied important management positions in the Business School of the University of Portsmouth. She is an accredited Fellow of the British Higher Education Academy and an active member of the British Academy of Management.

School of Humanities

Alexandros Kapaniaris has been awarded the “Kaftantzogleio Prize” by the School of Philosophy of The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, for the publication entitled “Digital Folklore & Education: Enriched Media & Innovative Approaches to the Teaching of Popular Culture” which is a product of a Phd thesis conducted at the Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design of the University of the Aegean, entitled “Popular Culture and Education: The role of Informatics and Information & Communication Technologies in the production of digital educational material”.The supervisor was Mrs Maria Gasouka, Emeritus Professor of Folklore and Gender of the Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design.

The doctoral dissertation of Alexandros Kapaniaris was republished in a short period of time by PEDIO publications, while the course of Digital Folklore has been included as an elective course in the undergraduate program of the Department of History and Ethnology of Democritus University.

In addition, Mr. Kapaniaris in collaboration with Ms. Gasouka had the scientific supervision of the educational package entitled “Pou pas karavaki me tetio kero? The Naval Tradition of Greece”. The design and production of the material was under the scientific responsibility of the “Department of Preschool Education and Educational Planning Sciences” (TEPAES), while the action was carried out in the framework of a memorandum of cooperation between the Department and the cultural institution of the Holy Diocese of Demitriados & Almyros “Magnet Ark – Academy of Popular Culture & Local History”. Seventy teachers of various specialties of Primary and Secondary Education collaborated for its elaboration, as well as various Εducational actors.

The educational package has been published by “Idiomelon” publications and has been approved by the Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) of the Ministry of Education & Religions (94483 / Δ2 17/7/2020) for implementation – in the framework of Skills Workshops, Flexible zone, Zone of Experiential Activities, Language, History, etc. – in the schools of Primary and Secondary Education of the country from the school year 2020-21. It has also been approved to be placed under the auspices of the Commission “Greece 2021” and to be published in the context of the celebrations for the 200 years of the Greek Revolution.

The Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design places special emphasis on supporting doctoral research which constitutes integral part of its overall educational design. Its PhD candidates are a vital part of the Department community that is often distinguished in competitive scholarships. Examples are the following cases of Phd candidates:

Matoula Volika: Ms Volika has been awarded a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY). Thesis title: “The concepts of educational and learning design in the modern technological environment and their implications for teacher training in the design of learning scenarios and digital educational material”. Three – member Advisory Committee: Professor Georges Fessakis (Supervisor), Professor Kalavassis Fragiskos, Professor Dimitrakopoulou Aggeliki (Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design)
Rodoula-Stavroula Garnara: Ms Garnara has received a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. Thesis title: “Quality Assurance and School Unit Evaluation Process: A Comparative Study of Public and Private Primary and Secondary Schools”.Three -member Advisory Committee: Assoc. Professor Nikos Andreadakis, (supervisor), Prof. Anastasios Kontakos, Prof. Vassilios Kefis, (Department of Public Administration of Panteion University).
Elena Nikolakopoulou: Ms Nikolakopoulou has been awarded a scholarship from the Hellenic Foundation of Research and Innovation.Thesis title: “The words portmanteau: towards a design of a relationship between literature and philosophy”. Three member Advisory Committee: Professor Elena Theodoropoulou, Professor Didier Moreau (University Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis), Professor Apostolos Lambropoulos (University of Bordeaux-Montaigne.
Maria Papadosifou: Ms Papadosifou has been awarded a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY). Thesis title: “School Development as a Development of Complexity: An Approach from the Perspective of Systemic Pedagogy”. Three member Advisory Committee: Professor Anastasios Kontakos (supervisor), Professor Frangiskos Kalavasis, Associate Professor Nikolaos Andreadakis, (Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design)
Eugenia Patta: Ms Patta has been awarded a scholarship from the Hellenic Foundation of Research and Innovation. Thesis title: ” The depiction of the body of Nazi concentration camps in the ninth art. Pedagogical extensions”. Three member Advisory Committee: professor Elena Theodoropoulou, Professor Christos Dermentzopoulos (Department of Fine Arts & Sciences, University of Ioannina), professor Arie Kizel (Department of Teacher Education, University of Haifa).

Grigoris Kontopoulos works as an Academic advisor at the Metropolitan College. He holds a ΒΑ Degree from the Department of Mediterranean Studies, a PhD (Egyptology) of the University of the Aegean, Department of Mediterranean Studies and a Master’s Degree (Master of Arts, Egyptology) from the University of Liverpool. His doctoral research was supported by the Hypatia scholarships program of the University of the Aegean. He is a founding and research member of the Egyptological Research Team of the University of the Aegean as well as a research member of the International Association of Egyptologists.

The University of the Aegean, the Department of Mediterranean Studies as well as the academic stuff defined his research interests from the beginning. Through an innovative program of studies, he was given the opportunity to follow the field of Egyptology, which with the support of Assistant Professor Panagiotis Kousoulis, the teaching staff of the department and through the vision that governs the people of the Department, follows a remarkable course in the scientific events of Greece.

As he says: “I would like to thank the University of the Aegean and the Department of Mediterranean Studies for the valuable knowledge and experiences they have given me and I wish to our new colleagues who have chosen the department, an enjoyable journey to the cradle of knowledge and all the best to their future endeavors”.

Kalomoira Nikolou is an Assistant Professor in Linguistics in the Department of Mediterranean Studies (DMS) at the University of Aegean. Apart from currently being a faculty member, Ms Nikolou has also received her B.A. degree (Division of Linguistics of the Southeastern Mediterranean) and Ph.D. “with honors” from the same Department and University. During her doctoral studies she had the chance to spend an academic year at the M.A. program of Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (the Netherlands) as a visiting scholar. Moreover, she was awarded a grant from the State Scholarship Foundation of the Hellenic Republic in order to conduct postdoctoral research at the Department of Philology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Before joining the teaching stuff of DMS, Ms Nikolou taught undergraduate linguistic courses at the Department of Primary Education of the Democritus University of Thrace and the Department of Philology of the University of Patras.

As she mentions: “Undoubtedly, my overall studies at the DMS of the University of the Aegean lead me to the fascinating paths of academic life. More specifically, I had the opportunity to be involved in several scientific projects as researcher and fieldwork, participate in international conferences, meat and work with great scholars from other institutions and expand my scientific horizons. Looking back, I consider myself blessed to have been in Rhodes and studied at the University of the Aegean, which, among other things, has been a meeting place with outstanding scholars -but most of all great people-, to whom I am grateful for their guidance and support. I hope that the Department of Mediterranean Studies and its people continue to support and inspire students with the strength to go beyond their limits, pursue their dreams and make them real»

Panos Drakopoulos, a graduate of the Department of Primary Education, is the founder of the Creative Reading and Writing Laboratory “To Kochili” and was included in the shortlist of candidates for the UNESCO Border Educational Offer Awards, for the years 2015-2016 and -2019, while he received an honorary distinction of the Ministry of Culture for the art and speech magazine “Islands” (as a member of its five-member editorial team) for 2019.

Irini – Anthi Papazachariou, graduate of the Department of Preschool Education and Educational Design and the Department of Primary Education as well and Μed holder from the Master Program “Environmental Education” of the Dpt of Preschool Sciences of Education & Educational Design” received an Award for educational offer in border areas, from the Hellenic Commission for UNESCO, in an event held on Friday, October 4, 2019 in the amphitheater “C. Kranidiotis “of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ms Papazachariou currently works as a teacher at the 5^th Primary School of Rhodes.

This distinction is due to the high level of professionalism and knowledge that she has, in times of the predominant refugee and migration crisis in the border areas of the Mediterranean which makes the role of the teacher extremely important for the sustainable development, the intercultural dialogue, equality and respect for diversity.

Mika Ntaka was born in Rhodes and lives in Rhodes. Ms Ntaka studied at the Department of Primary Education, University of the Aegean. She completed her postgraduate studies in “Children’s Book and Educational Material” (Department of Pre-school Education and Educational Design, University of the Aegean) in receipt of a scholarship and she is a PhD candidate in the field of Children’s Literature (Department of Primary Education, University of the Aegean). She also writes poetry and prose.

In 2019 she received praise from the Club for UNESCO of Piraeus and Islands for the theatrical performance “OMNIA” (Chios, Athens, 2019), which is based on two of her short stories, titled “Omnia” and “Ankirovolimenes anamnesis (Moored Memories)” and on some of her poems. According to her words: The main idea of these texts is all those that plague human existence: memory, love, death, every form of deprivation, passion, mystique of the unknown, fear, self-destruction, the pursuit of ourselves through the others. The majestic presence of woman idol determines heroes’ soul and their tragic destination, so, through their conflicts and pounding are led to their personal and painful truth. “Omnia” means “all”. All that is hidden in the abyssal ocean of our soul. The dark and the light!”

She has published the poetry book “Mnimes kai fasmata (Memories and spectra) (Verettas, 2016). She has participated in short-stories anthologies (Verettas, 2014-2017) and in the book Meta to skotadi to fos (After the dark… the light) (Komninos, 2020-under the auspices of the Club for UNESCO of Piraeus and Islands), the theme of which is violence against women. Some of her poems have been included in literary journals and she has been distinguished in poetry competitions.

Our faculty

The article of the Associate Professor Stasinakis Athanasios, entitled “Comparative study of the methods used for treatment and final disposal of sewage sludge in European countries” published in the journal Waste Management, has been rated as a highly cited paper (4^th/ 100) by the Web of Science in February 2019. Highly cited papers are articles which belong to the upper 1% of the articles of a specific research field published in a specific year.

The Department of the Environment received the 2017 Most Cited Paper Award of the Resources Conservation and Recycling journal. This category includes articles published during a specific year (2015 in this case) and having received the highest number of citations based on the Web of Science, for the next three years, including the year of publication (dhl. 2015-2017).

Associate Professor Dr. Joseph Botetzagias, of the Department of the Environment and co-authors are among the recipients of the “2017 Most Cited Paper Award” of the journal Resources Conservation and Recycling (RCR) for the publication of the following:

Botetzagias, I., Dima, A. F., & Malesios, C. (2015), Extending the theory of planned behavior in the context of recycling: The role of moral norms and of demographic predictors. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 95, 58-67.

Press Release

The University of the Aegean has been honoured for its contribution in Tourism Geography during the Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers, held in Boston, in 2017. Professor Theano Terkenli, received the Roy Wolfe Award “For outstanding contributions to the field and discipline of recreation, tourism and geography”. by the American Association of Geographers—Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty Group.(https://aagrts.wordpress.com/history/)

2nd July 2019

A community of knowledge, innovation and smart entrepreneurship has been established by the Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the University of the Aegean which has been participating in the Ecotrophelia Competition from the very beginning, receiving awards every year.

This year the list of products receiving an award has included the Department as the team of Kapolou A., Kokkoni E., Kolaklidi A., who were supervised by Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Koutelidakis Antonis received first prize for the “Best Presentation” of the “Robustus” product. The tireless efforts of the Department are fully supported by the Dimitris Skalkos, Associate Professor of Innovation Management in Food Enterprises. The efforts of Professor Skalkos and of the Department, which this year has managed to participate in the competition without the support of companies, for the first time, are worth mentioning considering this is a newly-established Department, set up in 2009. According to Charalambos Skiannis, Vice Rector and Professor at the University of the Aegean “The distinctions of our students in multiple competitions in Greece and abroad and the highly satisfactory results of the research about the professional development of our graduates even in the midst of an economic crisis, are solid proof that the University is being rewarded for the work accomplished.”

The University of the Aegean participated in the national contest organised by the General Secretariat for Industry (Ministry of Development and Investments) for the “European Awards Promoting Entrepreneurship 2020” under the category “Investment in Enterprise Skills” with the initiative “Blue Aegean” and qualified as one of the two public agencies representing Greece in the European Contest “European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2020” in Berlin in November 2020.

“Blue Aegean” consists of two activity pylons: the Blue Hackathon and Aegean Living Labs. Blue Hackathon began in 2015 and is a students’ contest for entrepreneurial ideas aiming at blue economy. The main thematic axes are transport in the Aegean and their linkage with tourist development on the islands, instituting incentives for people to settle and live at Greek islands, a differentiated confrontation of problems faced by public interest services and the identity and experiences of the islands. Aegean Living Labs are a weekly educational programme on blue entrepreneurship and local development combining traditional educational methods and experiential methodologies, aiming to comprehend theory through action and providing young participants, involved local agencies and young adults the potential to co-create new and innovative enterprise solutions through experimentation, being inspired by the challenges and opportunities created by locality/ insularity.

Aegean Living Labs take place only on islandic areas (Agistri, Shinoussa) or are related to activities regarding islands (Aegean Regatta, Sailing Living Lab), whereas the main selection criteria are the size of the island (small or middle-sized), accessibility and networking and the problems created by these two conditions to the attractiveness of an island and the potential to attract human resources, to training opportunities and the development of local/youth entrepreneurship.

Blue Aegean is run by members of three Labs: the Laboratory in Research in Shipping and Port Management (ReShip), the Regional and Insular Development Laboratory and the i4M Lab –Uaegean (Information Management Lab). The programme is applied exclusively via sponsorships and participation is free.

Maria Lekakou, Professor at the School of Administration Sciences, Department of Maritime and Business School is the Coordinator of the initiative and Dr Eva Stefanidaki is Deputy Coordinator.