Members of the Scientific Council

DR. GEORGE P. CHROUSOS, MD – MEMBER

Dr. Chrousos is Professor and Chairman of the First Department of Pediatrics at the Athens University Medical School and former Senior Investigator, Director of the Pediatric Endocrinology Section and Training Program, and Chief of the Pediatric and Reproductive Endocrinology Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and National Institutes of Health. Furthermore, Dr. Chrousos has been Professor of Pediatrics, Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University Medical School, Washington DC, USA. According to the ISI, Dr. Chrousos is among the 200 most prominent clinical investigators in the world. He has authored more than 1000 scientific publications, has edited 23 books and his work has amassed over 40,000 citations, an irrefutable testimony to the importance and influence of his research on international biomedical science and clinical practice.

Dr. Chrousos was born and raised in Patras, Greece, where he finished his high school studies. He attended and completed his doctorate thesis at the University of Athens. Subsequently, he completed his residency in Pediatrics at New York University Medical School, New York, NY, and his fellowship in Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He is Board Certified in Pediatrics/ Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes.

In his long tenure as a researcher, he has focused his research on the hypothalamicpituitary- adrenal (HPA) axis and has extensively studied the neuroendocrine alterations associated with mood disorders, sleep, pain perception, and immune function. His clinical and laboratory program is recognized worldwide for its extensive and highly original work on the glucocorticoid signaling system, diseases of the HPA axis, such as Cushing’s syndrome. Dr. Chrousos has contributed immensely to the biomedical literature and his work has provided new insights into a spectrum of clinical conditions and disorders that transcend the limits of classical Endocrinology, such as pregnancy, human development, surgical stress, sleep, and septic shock, as well as chronic complex disorders such as depression, eating disorders, and autoimmune –inflammatory diseases.

He has been a Member of the Scientific Council of the “Maria Tsakos” Foundation since 2012.

DR. TOM ALLAN – MEMBER

Dr. Allan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and graduated from the University of Strathclyde as a Naval Architect. He started his career in the shipbuilding industry and joined the United Kingdom Department for Transport in 1971 as a surveyor of ships where he began working both at the national and international level at IMO. Dr. Allan was appointed as Chief Surveyor in 1987 and Director of the U.K. Maritime & Coastguard Agency in 1994.

In 1994, Dr. Allan played a leading role as a member of IMO’s Panel of Experts established to review the safety of passenger ferries after the Estonia disaster and he was elected Chairman of the Sub-committee on Stability, Load Lines and on Fishing Vessel Safety (SLF) in 1995. Under his chairmanship, the SLF sub-committee completed many important issues, including the revision of the 1988 Load Lines Protocol, the consolidation of the harmonization of damage stability requirements in the International Convention for the Safety of life at Sea (SOLAS).

Meanwhile, he was appointed the United Kingdom’s first Permanent Representative to the IMO in 1998. After being unanimously elected chairman of the Maritime Safety Committee in 1999, he led the Committee until the end of 2005, using his negotiating skills and ability to inspire co-operation and consensus between nations, resulting in the adoption of many amendments and new regulations. Dr Allan was awarded the IMO Maritime Prize for 2005 and the USCG Distinguished Public Service Award in 2006.

He is currently Chairman of the Lloyd’s Register Technical Committee, Chairman of the International Association of Classification societies (IACS) Appeal Board, Chairman of the Cruise Ship Safety Forum, a member of the Royal Caribbean Cruise lines safety Advisory Board and continues to sit on various International Maritime Committees.

He has been a Member of the Scientific Council of the “Maria Tsakos” Foundation since 2012.

Eminent Metropolitan Bishop Markos Vasilakis – Member

He was born in Chios in 1965. In 1988, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the Department of Literature of the Philosophical School of the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens. In 1998, he got his Bachelor’s Degree from the Department of Theological Studies. He had attended for three years a Mastery Inter-scientific of Byzantine Studies at the University of Athens, as well as Paleography lessons at the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation. From 1988 until 1993 he had been working as a literature master in the private sector.

In 1994 he was ordained deacon and in 2000 he was ordained priest. In 1999 he was assigned as a preacher of the Holy Metropolis of Chios. Ιn 2000, he was Assistant Secretary Chancellor, in 2003 he served as Second-in-line Secretary of the Holy Synod, in 2006 Primus Secretary of the Holy Synod and in 2010 Secretary Chancellor of the Holy Synod with the responsibility of the drafting, the amending and the literary editing of all the Holy Synod documents. He is also a Stated Member of the returning board of the Library of the Holy Synod, the Supreme Service Church Council and the Special Synodic Boards which concern: a) the cultural identity, b) the observation of European matters, and c) sports. He can speak English. He is a Member of the Greek Philologists’ Association, the Hellenic Theologists’ Association and the Literature Club “Parnassos”. He has participated as a speaker in International and Greek Conferences of theological, literature and historic interest, as well as in Church Missions both in Greece and above.

He has written books, studies and articles in newspapers and magazines. In 2001 he was appointed as a Literature teacher of Secondary Education and he has been approved by the Athens School of Philosophy to prepare his Ph.D. in Byzantine Literature. He has been honoured many times. After his recommendations, the Holy Synod has appointed Efstathios, Archbishop of Thessaloniki as a Protector of the Homer’s Studies. In 2011, he was ordained Eminent Metropolitan Bishop of Chios, Psara and Oinousses.

He has been a Member of the Scientific Council of the “Maria Tsakos” Foundation since 2012.

Dr Christos S. Zerefos – Member

Christos S. Zerefos was born in Cairo, Egypt and graduated in Physics from the University of Athens and then with received a MSc in Meteorology and a Ph.D. in Physics-Meteorology, from the University of Athens. He served as a Post Doctoral researcher, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and other Research Institutions in Greece and abroad, as a Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the Universities of Thessaloniki and Athens, and as a visiting Professor at the Universities of Boston, Minnesota (USA) and Oslo (Norway).
He is a member of the Academy of Athens, the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Academia Europaea, the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, the International Academy of Astronautics and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) and Life Member of the American Geophysical Union.

He has received various awards among which the Global Ozone Award from the United Nations Environment Programme (1997), the Award of the European Physical Society and the Balkan Physical Union (2006), and the Honourable Mentions from the United Nations Environmental Program in 1995 and in 1998 and the Award Certificate and Letter from UNEP and from IPCC (2008) for his substantial contribution to the reports of IPCC, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize (1997).
His published work in peer reviewed scientific journals has been acknowledged from the scientific community with thousands of citations. Holder of the UNESCO Chair for Natural Disasters, President elect of the International Ozone Commission (IO3C) of IAMAS of ICSU, re-elected in 2012, President elect of the IUGG National Committee for Greece, former President of the National Observatory of Athens and other national and international fora.

Fotis Karamitsos – Member

Mr Karamitsos is acting Deputy Director General and Director within the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission.
His Directorate is responsible for the development and follow-up of the implementation of Maritime transport policy, maritime safety, environmental protection, as well as logistics, land transport and passenger rights.

He has also been responsible for the setting up the European Satellite Navigation System GALILEO as regards policy, infrastructure and applications, and for setting the Regulatory framework for the Intelligent Transport Systems.

He is with the European Commission for over 30 years, where he has worked on various Transport issues, as well on Telecommunications, Information society, Environment, Tourism and Research and Development.

Before joining the Commission he worked with the World Health Organisation’s programme on Greater Athens Pollution Control and on the Greek Academic and Public Sectors.

He holds degrees in Civil Engineering and Transportation planning from the Technical University of Athens and from Leeds University.

Kjerfve Björn – Member

Dr. Kjerfve serves as the President of the World Maritime University (WMU) since 2009 in his native country, Sweden. WMU is a UN postgraduate maritime university established by the International Maritime Organization in 1983. He is the former Dean of the College of Geosciences and Professor of Oceanography at Texas A&M University, 2004-2009. While at Texas A&M, he oversaw four academic departments, the Texas Sea Grant Program, and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), including the 475’ ocean sciences drilling vessel, D/V JOIDES Resolution. Kjerfve was previously Professor of Marine and Geological Sciences at the University of South Carolina, 1973-2004, and served as the Director of the Marine Science Program, 2000-2004. He received Ph.D., M.S., and B.A. degrees from Louisiana State University (Marine Sciences), University of Washington (Oceanography), and Georgia Southern University (Mathematics), respectively.

Professor Kjerfve’s expertise is coastal and estuarine physical oceanography. He has published some 12 books and 250 scientific journal papers, book chapters, and reports; has supervised 14 Ph.D. dissertations and 24 M.S. theses, and taught more than 6,000 oceanography students. His research includes analysis of processes in estuarine and coastal waters as well as climate change research and has attracted $20 million in research funding for some 90 projects. Dr. Kjerfve’s field research has taken place along the East and Gulf coasts of the USA, in the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia, the Persian Gulf, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.

Professor Kevin Featherstone – Member

Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  He served as Director/Head of the LSE’s European Institute from 2004-07 and in 2011-12.

He was previously Professor of European Politics (1995-2002) and Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration Studies (1994-2002) at the University of Bradford; Lecturer in Politics, University of Stirling; also, Visiting Professor in Politics, New York University (1990-91); Visiting Professor in International Relations, University of Minnesota (1983).  He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University.

His research has focussed on the politics of the European Union and the politics of contemporary Greece; his work has been framed in the perspectives of comparative politics, public policy, and political economy, as well as history.

In 2010 he was appointed to an ad hoc advisory committee on government reform by the Greek PM and he continues as a member of the Greek National Council for Research and Technology (To Ethniko Symboulio Ereunas kai Texnologias, ESET).

He is Vice-Chair, Advisory Board, Atomium Culture, Brussels: a philanthropic NGO dedicated to promoting closer interaction between academia, business, and government within the European Research Area [see: http://atomiumculture.eu/ .

He is a member of the Academy of the Social Sciences, UK.

He is a regular contributor to the international media on Greece and writes a regular Op-Ed in ‘Kathimerini’, Athens.

Dr Tom Allan – Member

Dr Allan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and graduated from the University of Strathclyde as a Naval Architect.  He started his career in the shipbuilding industry and joined the United Kingdom Department for Transport in 1971 as a surveyor of ships where he began working both at the national and international level at IMO.  Dr Allan was appointed as Chief Surveyor in 1987 and a Director of the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency in 1994.

In 1994, Dr Allan played a leading role as a member of IMO’s Panel of Experts established to review the safety of passenger ferries after the Estonia disaster and he was elected Chairman of the Sub-committee on Stability, Load Lines and on Fishing Vessel Safety (SLF) in 1995.  Under his chairmanship, the SLF sub-committee completed many important issues, including the revision of the 1988 Load Lines Protocol, the consolidation of the harmonization of damage stability requirements in the International Convention for the Safety of life at Sea (SOLAS).

Meanwhile, Dr Allan was appointed the United Kingdom’s first Permanent Representative to the IMO in 1998, After being unanimously elected chairman of the Maritime Safety Committee in 1999, Dr Allan led the Committee until the end of 2005, using his negotiating skills and ability to inspire co-operation and consensus between nations, resulting in the adoption of many amendments and new regulations.  Dr Allan was awarded the IMO Maritime Prize for 2005 and the USCG Distinguished Public Service Award in 2006.

Dr Allan is currently Chairman of the Lloyd’s Register Technical Committee, Chairman of the International Association of Classification societies (IACS) Appeal Board, Chairman of the Cruise Ship Safety Forum, a member of the Royal Caribbean Cruise lines safety Advisory Board and continues to sit on various International maritime Committees.

Dr Stamatios M. Krimigis – Chairman

Dr. Stamatios Krimigis received his B. Physics from the University of Minnesota (1961), his M.S (1963) and Ph.D (1965) in Physics from the University of Iowa, and served on the faculty there. In 1968 he moved to the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, headed the Space Physics and Instrumentation group, became Chief Scientist in 1980,  Space Department Head in 1991, and Emeritus Head in 2004. He was elected to the Academy of Athens in 2004 and occupies the Chair of “Science of Space”.

Dr. Krimigis is Principal Investigator on several NASA spacecraft, including Voyagers 1 and 2 to the Outer Planets and the Voyager Interstellar Mission, and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan.  He has designed and built instruments that have flown to all eight planets, and also the New Horizons mission currently headed to Pluto.  He has published more than 530 papers in journals and books on the physics of the sun, interplanetary medium, planetary magnetospheres, and the heliosphere, and is Co-editor of the book Saturn from Cassini-Huygens (Springer, 2009).

Dr. Krimigis is recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal twice, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, recipient of COSPAR’s Space Science Award in 2002, and in 1994 of the Basic Sciences Award of the International Academy of Astronautics where he chairs the Board of Trustees for Basic Sciences. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of the Aegean (12/2009, Financial and Management Engineering), University of Athens (05/2010 Department of Physics), and International Hellenic University (5/2011, Science of Engineering), In 2010 the Council of European Aerospace Societies awarded him the CEAS Gold Medal..He served as Greece’s Alternate Head delegate to the European Space Agency (2006-2010) , and is currently chairman of Greece’s National Council of Research and Technology.