Prof. Pericles A. Mitkas received his Diploma of Electrical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1985 and an MSc and PhD in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University, USA, in 1987 and 1990, respectively. Between 1990 and 2000 he was a faculty member with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Colorado State University in USA, where he directed the Optical Computing Laboratory.

Since 1999, Dr. Mitkas has been a faculty member with the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he has served as Director of the Laboratory for Information Processing and Computing, Associate Head, and Head of the Department. He has also served as the Director of the University IT Department.

In 2014, Prof. Mitkas was elected as University Rector, a position equivalent to President, where he served until 2019. Aristotle University is the largest university in Greece, with some 70.000 students and a healthy funded research program. During his term in the office, his main goal was to strengthen the international programs and collaborations of Aristotle. In 2017-18, Prof. Mitkas served in the Presidency of the Greek Rectors Synod. In 2018-19, he served as President of the Balkan University Association and he is currently serving a two-year term (2018-20) as the President of the Black Sea University Network.

From 2001 to 2014, he collaborated with the Information Technologies Institute (ITI) at the Centre of Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), and served as its Deputy Director for 7 years. He was a Member (2006-10) and President (2009-10) of the Provisional General Assembly of the then newly established Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics of the University of Central Greece, in Lamia.

Prof. Mitkas has taught Databases, Software Engineering, and Data Mining courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has supervised 16 Ph.D. dissertations, 19 Master’s theses, and more than 135 Diploma Theses in Greece and in the US. His research interests include databases and knowledge bases, data mining and machine learning, software agents and intelligent systems, and bioinformatics. His work has been published in over 320 papers, book chapters, and conference publications. He is the co-author of a book on Agent Intelligence through Data Mining.

Prof. Mitkas has been the coordinator of numerous research projects in Greece and the US, several of which involved industrial partners.

Angelos Chaniotis is since 2010 Professor of Ancient History and Classics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has been Professor of Ancient History at New York University (1994-98) and the University of Heidelberg (1998-2006), Vice Rector of the University of Heidelberg (2001-06), and Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College in Oxford (2006-10). He has taught as visiting professor at the International Hellenic University, in Paris, Australia, and China. His research, for which he has received funding from the European Research Council, the Packard Humanities Institute, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and other institutions, is dedicated to ancient inscriptions, historical memory, religion, theatricality in public life, emotion, and society in the Hellenistic world and the Roman East. His books include War in the Hellenistic World: A Social and Cultural History (2005), Theatricality and Public Life in the Hellenistic Age (2009), and Age of Conquests: The Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian (2018). He has been member of many boards, such as the Comitato Nazionale dei Garanti per la Ricercain Italy and the Research Board of the Astrian Academy of Sciences. He is corresponding member of the Academies of Athens, Heidelberg, Finland, the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium and the American Philosophical Society and hold honorary degrees of the Hellenic International University, the University of Liège, the University of Thessaloniki, and the Ionian University. He has been honored inter alia with the Teaching Award of New York University (1997), the Research Award of the State of Baden-Württenberg (2000), the Research Award of the Humboldt Foundation (2014), the Greek State Award for Literature/Essay (2010), and was made Commander of the Order of Phoenix in Greece (2013).

Spiros H. Anastasiadis is Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Crete and the former Director of the Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (IESL-FORTH).

He received his Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in (1983) and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, Princeton, USA in 1988.  He has been a Visiting Scientist at the IBM Almaden Research Center (1988-1989).  He has been a Professor of Experimental Physics at the Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Crete (1993–2005) and a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Dept. of Chemical Engineering of the Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki (AUTh, 2005–2008).  He was the Founder, Organizer and Alternate Scientific Coordinator of the Department of Materials Science & Technology of the Univ. of Crete (1999-2004) whereas he has been the Alternate Chairman of the Dept. of Chemical Engineering of AUTh (09/2007–10/2008).  He was elected Director of IESL-FORTH in 2013 and was re-elected in 11/2018; his term ended in 02/2023.  He is a Member of the Quality Assurance Committee (01/2009–now) whereas he served as the Vice Chair of the Technical Council (02/2011–10/2016) and as the Vice Chair of the Committee on Research Integrity and Ethics (07/2018–12/2021) of the University of Crete. He serves as the National Representative in the Horizon Europe Programme Committee Configuration on Research Infrastructures and as the National Representative of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).  He has been appointed Chairman of the Scientific Supervisory Board of the Experimental General Lyceum of Heraklion (1/2020-now) and Chairman of the Regional Committee of Model and Experimental Schools of the Region of Crete (03/2021-now).

He was awarded the John H. Dillon Medal of the American Physical Society in 1998 and was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2000. He has received the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award in 1987 and the Society of Plastics Engineers - Plastics Analysis Division Best Paper Award during ANTEC 1985.  He has been a Senior Editor of the Journal of Polymer Science: Part B: Polymer Physics (5/2006-7/2010).  He served as a Consulting Editor for AIChE J. (8/2012-12/2016) and as a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Macromolecules (1/2015-12/2017) whereas he currently serves as a Member of the Editorial Board of Polymers (1/2020-now).  He was elected a Mary Shepard B. Upson Visiting Professor at Cornell University for the Academic year 2018-2019.  He has been the elected President of the European Polymer Federation for the years 2018 and 2019 whereas he serves as President of the Hellenic Polymer Society (12/2012-now).

His research interests are in the areas of polymer surfaces/interfaces and thin films, block copolymers, polymer blends and homopolymer/copolymer blends, dynamics and diffusion in multi-constituent systems, organic/inorganic nanohybrid materials, responsive polymer systems and nanostructured materials for energy applications.  He has published 147 papers in refereed journals, 5 in books, 6 in refereed conference proceedings, and 83 in non-refereed conference proceedings.  He has edited 1 book and has translated 2 textbooks in Greek (one alone and one with co-workers).  His work has been presented 600 times (118 invited plus 19 co-workers invited) in international meetings.  He has given 58 invited lectures at academic and industrial institutions.  As of July 6, 2023, he has received (ISI, ResearcherID: D-2778-2009) 7247 total citations (6668 non-self citations, 92.0%) with 48.64 average citations per paper.  His h-index is 45.

Dr  Eugenia Bezirtzoglou is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at Democritus University of Thrace, specializing in "Microbiology with an emphasis on Microbial Ecology." She has had a significant academic career with research interests focused on Medicine, Environmental Sciences, and Agrofood Sciences.

Dr. Bezirtzoglou is a Medical Doctor Microbiologist-Biopathologist and also a Biochemist with studies in France. She holds Master's degrees in Hematology and Parasitology from the University of Lille II, School of Medicine, as well as a Master's in Biochemistry from University of Lille I in France. She continued her studies with a DEA in Microbiology at the University Paris-Sud, Orsay, where she also completed her Ph.D. Thesis in Microbiology. She also obtained the postdoctoral title of Habilitation from the University Paris-Sud, Orsay.

She worked at the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology at the Karolinska Institute and later at the International Reference Center for Anaerobic Bacteria at UCLA (University of California Los Angeles), specializing in intestinal microbiota and anaerobic microorganisms. She has extensive teaching experience of 37 years in Greece and abroad, managing numerous research programs as a scientific coordinator or team member and participating in evaluations in both Greece and abroad.

Her notable experiences include serving on the Evaluation Committee of Universities & Institutes & Laboratory Accreditation at the French organization HCERES (Haut Conseil de l’ Evaluation de la recherche et de l’Enseignement Superieur). She has also been a member of the Evaluation Committee of the BioDyMIA Institute (Universite de Lyon 1, Claude Bernard) and served as the Official Representative of Greece and Laboratory Specialist at the European Center for Diseases Control (ECDC-Stockholm) during its founding period. She was nominated as a member of the Anti-doping Committee during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

In Greece, she served as the President of the OMEA of the Department of Agricultural Development at Democritus University of Thrace (2013-2017) and participated in a committee proposing the establishment and organization of the new Medical School at the University of Thessaly (1987) and the University of Limassol in Cyprus (2023).

Dr Bezirtzoglou has administrative experience in HEI units, serving as the President of the Department of Agricultural Development at Democritus University of Thrace (2013-2017), a member of the Ethics & Deontology Committee at Democritus University of Thrace (2006), Director of 3 Laboratories at Democritus University of Thrace (2013-2018), and held administrative positions in other organizations. She was elected President and treasurer of the International Society of Microbial Ecology and Disease (SOMED, USA) (2016-2020) and she was awarded as Chevalier and later as Officier (AMOPA (Association de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques) from the French Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Recherche.

She has developed multiple ERASMUS collaborations with universities in France, the Netherlands, and Hungary, as well as research collaborations. Currently, she is the Director of the MSc program in the Department of Medicine at Democritus University of Thrace with the title "Foods, Nutrition, and Microbiota."

Her research focuses on studies of the gut microbiota, intestinal bacterial translocation, microbiome and disease, microbial ecology, as well as the impact of antibiotics on the intestinal ecosystem, and innovative technologies aiming at producing functional foods with health benefits.

Dr Bezirtzoglou has participated in over 60 research programs as a researcher and has coordinated 17 high-funded research projects at Democritus University of Thrace. She has published a total of 181 papers (Scopus), 121 papers (PubMed) in scientific journals with over 6000 citations and an h-index of 36. Additionally, she has written 40 chapters in scientific books and 7 in the UNESCO Encyclopedia and has presented over 200 abstracts at international conferences and 40 presentations at Greek conferences.