ACADEMIC COMMITTEE
Dr Lois Labrianidis
Chair of the Academic Committee
Dr. Lois Labrianidis is an economic geographer and a Professor in the Department of Economic Sciences, University of Macedonia Greece, as well as founder and head of the Regional Development and Planning Research Unit (RDPRU). From 2015 to 2019 he was the Secretary General for Private Investments – Greek Ministry of Economy & Development. He has done research and published on topics such as industrial location, the spatial aspects of subcontracting, the economic implications of peripheral universities on their locality, rural entrepreneurship, foreign direct investment, economic consequences of immigration. His scholarly publications include several journal papers and nine books. He was the scientific coordinator of 16 major research projects (e.g. European Commission FP5 and FP6). He was Guest Editor in two special issues of European Planning Studies and of Regional Studies. He was member of the Editorial Board of the journal European Urban and Regional Studies and a member of the Advisory Board of Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. He was Αssociate / Corresponding Εditor to Capital and Class. He was member of the Editorial Board in two Greek journals Topos (Review of Spatial Development and Environment) and University. He is advisor to the Editors of Geografies. He is a columnist in the Greek Press focusing on issues related to economic development, migration, brain drain.
Dr. Nikos Erinakis
Dr. Nikos Erinakis holds a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy and Aesthetics [Universities of London and Oxford], having studied Economics [AUEB], Philosophy and Comparative Literature [Warwick] and Philosophy of the Social Sciences [LSE]. He is the Director of Research of ENA – Institute for Alternative Policies. He has taught Political Philosophy, Ethics and Aesthetics at the University of London and he now teaches at the University of Athens, the Athens School of Fine Arts, and the Hellenic Open University. He is also a board member of the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra and he has been a board member of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. He is a published critically acclaimed poet [Soon Everything Will Be Burning and Will Lit Up Your Eyes, Roes, 2009; In Between Where the Shadow Falls, Gavrielides, 2013] and translator of modern European poets [Georg Trakl: Dark Love of a Wild Generation, Gavrielides, 2011; Paul Celan: North of Future, Gavrielides, 2017]. His papers, articles and poems have been translated and published in journals, edited collections, anthologies and the popular press. His second collection of poems has been recently translated and published in France (Desmos, 2018).
Dr. Ioannis Kaplanis
Dr. Kaplanis is an experienced economist with degrees from London School of Economics (PhD, BSc) and University of Manchester (MSc). He has worked as an Economist at the OECD Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development and the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. On official secondment from OECD, he moved to Greece and served as Director General of the Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation (OBI). In the past, Dr Kaplanis worked for years in academia (LSE, UK; Universitat Rovira i Virgili, ES), and in the Economic Team of the Mayor of London. He has extensive experience advising national and regional governments on public governance and development policies in order to promote sustainable, inclusive and innovative cities and regions (China, Chile, Mexico, Greece and UK). Dr Kaplanis is a member of the five-member Committee of Experts for setting the Minimum Wage of Greece. Since September 2019, he leads a research project on “Crisis and Entrepreneurship”, based at the Athens University of Economics and Business and funded by the London School of Economics.
Dr. Theodora Kotsaka
Dr. Theodora Kotsaka is a political sociologist with degrees from University of Athens, Essex University UK, Aegean University and Panteion University. She works as a scientific researcher for think tanks, research institutes and collaborates with international research networks. Her areas of expertise is commons theory, especially applied policies in commons and P2P and the emerging civic rights of the digital era. She is the Co-ordinator of the Observatory on Commons and P2P Production (ENA). She has been a scientific advisor for specific policies for Ministries and the Greek Parliament. She has worked as a seminar organiser for international events on commons, as a public speaker and on the creation of networking for people active in the field. She is the author of ‘Social Cleaveges and ideologies, editor of ‘Water: A common good’ and author of several articles in books, journals and the media. Her research work has been published in English and Greek. Among others she has worked as an electoral observer for OSCE, as an instructor of political science for colleges and at the European Commission (DG ΧΧΙΙΙ, Trade, Tourism, SME).
Dr. Alexandros Selimis
Dr. Alexandros Selimis current expertise lies on the dissemination of research outputs as well as on providing a range of advice on policy decisions, preparing policy reports and briefings and the development of sustainable strategies and policies concerning the domains of Research and Innovation. His scientific background comprises the materials processing by laser beams with emphasis on polymer laser ablation techniques. His recent projects of interest include Photonics and Biophotonics relying on the multi-photon polymerization fabrication technique focusing on the biomedical applications of nonlinear lithography and the single UV laser pulse foaming of natural biopolymers. His overall expertise encompasses the laser technology employment in both the preservation of Cultural Heritage and the Tissue Engineering applications. His research activities have led to the publication of 26 peer reviewed papers with 649 citations (Scopus h-index: 13), and 3 chapters in international scientific books.
Dr. Angelos Sotiropoulos
Dr. Angelos Sotiropoulos is a Physicist with a Master’s Degree in Environmental Physics and a PhD in Chemical Engineering (National Technical University of Athens). He has served as a member of the “Bureau for the Scientific and Secretarial Support of the Collective Government Bodies”. He is experienced in the implementation of EU funded projects as a project coordinator and their dissemination and communication actions. He has successfully organized International Conferences on waste management and treatment, biomass utilization, biofuels production, industrial symbiosis, circular economy, tourism, etc. Dr. Sotiropoulos has over 50 publications in the broad spectrum of circular economics, in prestigious International scientific journals and conferences.
Stathis Devves
Stathis Devves works as a Project Monitoring Manager for Upgrade technical projects in the Energy Sector. He holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics Department and an MSc in Energy Economics, Strategy & Law. He is also a PhD Candidate-Student (AUEB, Department of Economics) and a researcher in the International Centre for Research on the Environment and the Economy (ICRE8), a non-profit private Research Centre dedicated to interdisciplinary research on sustainable development and management of the Environment, Energy, Economy, Eco-innovations and their electronic versions. He has worked for years for Refineries Machinery Maintenance, as a Coordinating Engineer for Major Overhauls. He has also worked in the past at Construction Companies regarding Installation and Application of E/M equipment.
His research field extends to: Sustainable Development, Roadmap to 2050 De-carbonization and Alignment between different Sustainable Policy Frameworks, such as Development Goals (SDGs), European Green Deal, EU Semester Process and EU Country Specific Recommendations (co-authoring in Working Papers). Moreover, topics such as Circular Economy, Life Cycle Analysis, No Market Goods Monetary Valuation and Supervised Models for Text mining, Deep Learning for Natural language processing (NLP) and relevant methods for detecting Sustainability arrays within Public Policy Agenda, are currently setting the overall framework of his research context. He is experienced in the implementation of EU funded projects as a project coordinator and their dissemination and communication actions. He has successfully organized International Conferences on waste management and treatment, biomass utilization, biofuels production, industrial symbiosis, circular economy, tourism, etc. Dr. Sotiropoulos has over 50 publications in the broad spectrum of circular economics, in prestigious International scientific journals and conferences.
