Professor Nektarios Tavernarakis. He is Vice-President of the European Research Council (ERC) and Chairman of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Governing Board. He is also President of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), and Professor of Molecular Systems Biology at the Medical School of the University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece. He is the Founder and first Director of the Graduate Program on BioInformatics at the Medical School of the University of Crete, and is also heading also heads the Neurogenetics and Ageing laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of FORTH.
His work focuses on the molecular mechanisms of necrotic cell death and neurodegeneration, the interplay between cellular metabolism and ageing, the mechanisms of sensory transduction and integration by the nervous system, and the development of novel genetic tools for biomedical research. He has published numerous scientific papers in top-tier, cross-discipline, international scientific journals, in addition to invited book chapters, and other publications, including editorials, commentaries, and science-popularizing articles.
For his scientific accomplishments, he has received several notable scientific prizes, including two ERC Advanced Investigator Grants, and an innovation-supporting ERC Proof of Concept Grant. He is also the recipient of the EMBO Young Investigator award, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel research award, the Bodossaki Foundation Scientific Prize for Medicine and Biology, the Empeirikeion Foundation Academic Excellence Prize, the BioMedical Research Award of the Academy of Athens, the Galien Scientific Research Award, and the Helmholtz International Fellow Award.
