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Announcements

Composition of the National Commission for Bioethics &Technoethics

The National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics is composed of eleven (11) distinguished scientists, appointed by the Prime minister.

Chair: Effy Vayena, Professor of Bioethics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

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Effy Vayena is a Professor of Bioethics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) and renowned expert at the intersection of medicine, data, and ethics. Her work focuses on how emerging technologies in biomedicine and data analytics affect our society and what ethical safeguards we should put in place to avoid negative consequences. To address these questions, she uses different research methodologies. She founded and directs the Health Ethics and policy Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab including philosophers, social scientists, lawyers, biologists and engineers.

Μrs Vayena has been appointed Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she was previously a Fellow. She has published over a hundred peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and co-edited several books. Vayena is also an elected member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. She chairs the Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications advisory group for the Swiss Personalized Health Network, a national infrastructure and research program which aims to advance personalized healthcare in Switzerland. She currently co-chairs the WHO’s expert advisory group on Artificial Intelligence health ethics and governance. She is also a member of the Swiss COVID19 Science Task. Mrs Vayena frequently advises governments and public policy organizations on matters of digitization and ethics.

Vice Chair: Charalambos Tsekeris, Researcher at the Institute for Social Research of the National Center for Social Research.

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Professor Charalambos Tsekeris is Research Fellow in Digital Sociology at the National Centre for Social Research (Athens, Greece), and Vice-President of the Hellenic National Commission for Bioethics & Technoethics. He is also Principal Investigator and Coordinator of the World Internet Project-Greece, Professor Extraordinary at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, and Academic Associate at the Anti-Corruption Centre for Education and Research, Stellenbosch University.

He actively collaborates with the University of Athens, Panteion University and the University of the Peloponnese, and has authored more than 120 scholarly papers and one book from the Academy of Athens (also edited 3 books from Routledge). His current research involves the power of digital and biotech ethics, as well as the dynamics of the internet and e-economy in Greece and Europe, including strategic foresight and futures perspectives

Members

Sergios Theodoridis, Professor Emeritus of Engineering Learning and Data Processing in the Information and Telecommunications Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

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Sergios Theodoridis is currently Professor Emeritus of Signal Processing and Machine Learning in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and he is Distinguished Professor Aalborg University, Denmark. He is the author/co-author of four books in English and three books in Greek. He is the co-author of seven papers that have received Best Paper Awards in leading journals and international conferences. He is the recipient of highly prestigious awards, including, the 2017 EURASIP Athanasios Papoulis Award, the 2014 IEEE Signal Processing Society Education Award and the 2014 EURASIP Meritorious Service Award.

He has served as Vice President of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) Signal Processing Society, and as President of the European Association for Signal and Image Processing (EURASIP) and he currently serves as Vice-President of the “DIKTIO” – Network for Reform in Greece and Europe. He is a Fellow of EURASIP and a Life Fellow of IEEE.

Evangelos Karkaletsis, Director of the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, of the National Center for Research in Natural Sciences “Democritus”.

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Vangelis Karkaletsis is Director of the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications (IIΤ) at NCSR Demokritos, member of the National Council for Research and Innovation (ESETEK). Graduate of the Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics, University of Patras, with an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London and a PhD in knowledge representation and information extraction from the Informatics & Telecommunications Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His research interests are in the areas of artificial intelligence for content analysis, knowledge representation, human-machine interaction, as well as in big data management.

Coordinator, scientific and technical manager of many European and national projects and organiser of numerous international conferences, workshops and summer schools. Having been responsible for the Institute's educational activities, he initiated the joint PhD scholarship program with several Universities abroad, launched the new MSc in Data Science and MSc in Artificial Intelligence programs for NCSR Demokritos, and set up the new educational program for primary and secondary schools. He participates in the IIT Document Intelligence Center of Excellence (DICE), which operates since the end of 2019 with the support of EY Global. Head of the initiative “Democratising AI: A National Strategy for Greece”, with coordinating role in the team that prepared recently the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence.

Konstantinos Karpouzis, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Media and Culture, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences.

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Kostas Karpouzis is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication, Media and Culture,Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. In his research, he is looking for ways to make computer systems less biased and more aware of and responsive to the way people interact with each other using natural, affective interaction and intelligent, user-adaptive algorithms.

Since 1998, he has participated in more than twenty research projects funded by Greek and European bodies; most notably the Humaine Network of Excellence, leading research efforts in emotion modelling and recognition, the FP6 IP CALLAS project (Area Leader of Affective applications), the FP7 TeL Siren project (Technical Manager), which was voted Best Learning Game in Europe for 2013 by the Games and Learning Alliance, the H2020 iRead project, which produced Navigo, the winner of the GALA Serious Games competition for 2018, and the ECoWeB project, which produced an app to promote emotional wellbeing and prevent mental health problems in adolescents and young adults.

He is the Student Activities Chair and Computer Chapter Chair for IEEE Greece, a member of the BoD for the gi-Cluster of Corallia, which consists of industrial and academic members of the game and creative ecosystem in Greece, and the Chairman of the Board of the Hellenic Association of Computer Engineers. In fall 2016, he authored a lesson on the TED-ed platform titled "Can machines read your emotions?"; the lesson surpassed 300.000 views in its first week and has been used by more than 240 teachers.

Ioannis Kompatsiaris, First Level Researcher and Deputy Director at the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies of the National Center for Research and Technological Development.

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Dr. Ioannis (Yiannis) Kompatsiaris is a Research Director at CERTH-ITI, the Head of Multimedia Knowledge and Social Media Analytics Laboratory and Deputy Director of the Institute. His research interests include ΑΙ/Machine Learning for multimedia analysis, Semantics (multimedia ontologies and reasoning), Social Media and Big Data Analytics, Multimodal and Sensors Data Analysis, Human Computer Interfaces, e- Health, Arts and Cultural, Media/Journalism, Environmental and Security applications.

He is the co-author of 178 papers in refereed journals, 63 book chapters, 8 patents and 560 papers in international conferences. He currently coordinates the 30-institution AI4MEDIA Network of Excellence: A European Excellence Centre for Media, Society and Democracy for promoting Artificial Intelligence research, technologies and applications in Media with emphasis on ethical and trustworthy AI. He has been the co-chair of various international conferences and workshops and has served as a regular reviewer, associate and guest editor for a number of journals. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM.  Since January 2014, he is a co-founder of the Infalia private company, a high-tech SME focusing on data intensive web services and applications.

Ismini Kriari, Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences.

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Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law, Department of Public Administration, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (since 2008). Since April 2021, member of the National Bioethics and Technoethics Commission of Greece. Member of the Monitoring Board of the National Authority on Human Assisted Procreation. Member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation of the Greek Parliament.

2003 Visiting Professor at the University of Lueneburg 2003.

2004 - 2007 Special Secretary in the Ministry of Education, responsible for Greek Schools Abroad, Intercultural Education and the introduction of bioethics in Secondary education.

2004-2007 Member of the Board of the National Committee on Human Rights.

Since 2004 Member of the Board of the Hellenic National Commission for UNESCO (since 2004). Since 2014 Founder of the Postgraduate Course on Law, Technology, Economy at Panteion University. Founder of the Research center on Bioethics and Technoethics at Panteion University.

2011-2016 Vice-Rector of Panteion University.

2016-2020 Rector of Panteion University.

2013-2014 Evaluator for PhD projects at the National Scholarship Organization (IKY).

ELIDEK,2020 Evaluator for research projects at the Research Grant Organization

Expert in the field of Bioethics: Member of the Bioethics Committee of the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church (since 2001). Chairperson of the Scientific Committee on Bioethics of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (2002-2005). Member of the Bioethics Committee of the Medical School of National University of Athens. Member of the Steering Committee for Bioethics (CDBI) of the Council of Europe ( 2010 – 2012). Member of the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (2010-2016). Expertise for the Greek Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Greek Ministry of Health, The German Office of Technology Assessment, the EGE (2003).

Participation in many research projects at research centers in Greece and Europe as participant, partner and Senior Expert.

Fields of research: Human assisted procreation in national law and comparative perspective// legal, ethical and social aspects of cloning// genetic banks and biobanks// therapies in somatic cells and germcells// legal and ethical

issues about xenotransplantation// animal rights// embryo and stem cell research, nanomedicine// technology assessment and consensus conferences// the role of parliaments in the technological era, etc.

Speaker in many national and international conferences and round tables.

Publications :Book on human assisted procreation (1994); On constitutional protection of genetic data (1999); On technology assessment and consensus conferences (2001); On Greek studies abroad (2008), in Greek; On xenotransplantation (in coll. with other authors, Verlag Dr. Mueller, 2008// On Transplantation (in coll. with others, Verlag Dr. Mueller, Saarbruecken, 2010, in English).

More than 70 articles on legal and ethical issues mainly in law and technology, human rights and healthcare, bioethics and human rights in Greek and foreign reviews.

Decoration: Grosses Verdienstkreuz mit Stern, September 2006, by the Federal German Government. Chevalier des Palmes Academiques by the French Government, 2015. Decoration by the Russian Ministry of Education , 2013. Decoration by the Ukranian Ministry of Education , 2006.

Eugenia Prevedourou, Professor of Public Law at the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

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Eugenia Prevedourou, born in Patras, is Professor of Administrative Law at the Faculty of Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She studied Law at National and Kapodistrian University of Athensand pursued her postgraduate studies at the University PARIS II (Université de Droit, d'Économie et de Sciences Sociales de Paris). She obtained the DEA (Diplôme d'études approfondies) in Internal Public Law (1988) and the DEA in Community Law (1989).

After doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Yves Gaudemet, also in Paris, she was awarded the title of Docteur en Droit de l’Université Paris II in October 1994. The doctoral thesis, bearing the title“Les recours administratifs obligatoires. Étude comparée des droits allemand et français”, was published in 1996 by LGDJ. From 1992 till 2001, she worked as a civil servant in the Court of justice of the European Union. Since October 2001 she has been teaching at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

She has also taught for short periods at the Universities PARIS I and PAPIS II and at the University Montpellier I (visiting professor). E. Prevedourou is an attorney-at-law, member of the Athens Bar Association, since 1988. From September 2018 till October 2020 she was member of the National Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction. Her native tongue is Greek and she speaks fluently French, English and German. Besides her doctoral thesis, she is the author of six further books in French and in greek. She has made a significant number of publications in the fields of Administrative Law and European Community Law, as well as lectures in seminars and congresses, both national and european.

Evangelos Protopapadakis, Associate Professor of Applied Ethics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

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Evangelos D. Protopapadakis is Associate Professor of Applied Ethics (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens);

Director of the NKUA Applied Philosophy Research Laboratory;

Member of the Hellenic National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics;

Head of the Greek Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Haifa), Director of the MA Program Animal Welfare, Ethics and the Law, Member of the Pan-Orthodox Committee of Bioethics of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, and Member of the Bioethics Committee of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute.

He has published 4 books in Greek and 1 in English as the single author, as well as 10 edited volumes as the editor or the co-editor: 3 in English, 1 in Serbian and 6 in Greek. He has published more than 70 papers in domestic or international scientific journals and volumes.

He is a member of several domestic and international philosophical societies; he is also the Editor-in-Chief of Conatus – Journal of Philosophy.

Dimitrios Skaltsas, Executive Director of Intelligencia, a technology company providing innovative artificial intelligence applications for the development of new drugs.

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Δημήτριος Σκαλτσάς

Dimitrios Skaltsas is Co-founder and Executive Director at Intelligencia, a technology company headquartered in NYC, developing AI applications for enabling and accelerating novel therapies' drug development. Intelligencia's interdisciplinary team of biologists, data scientists and software engineers is based in the US, Greece and the UK.

Prior to Intelligencia, Dimitrios led the big data & AI group for Pharmaceutical R&D at McKinsey & Co in the US. He has consulted private and public organizations in the Life Sciences space in the US, Europe and the Middle East. Dimitrios Skaltsas is an Executive in Residence for Digital &AI at INSEAD. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, an LLM from UCL, and an LL.B. from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Stavroula Tsinorema, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy and Bioethics at the University of Crete.

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She holds a First Class Honours Degree in Philosophy from the Department of Philosophy, University of Athens, followed by M.A. in Moral and Social Philosophy and Ph.D. in Moral Philosophy from the University of Exeter. She has held an Exeter University Scholarship (UK), a Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals Award (UK), and A.K. Mellon Foundation Fellowship (USA).

She has taught at the University of Ioannina and University of Exeter and has held visiting posts/fellowships at the Universities of Leeds, Pittsburgh (Center for Philosophy of Science), Oxford (St. John’s College), Texas at Austin, London School of Economics and Political Sciences (Centre for Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences), University of London (Institute of Philosophy Fellowship ), Stanford University.

She research interests are in moral and social philosophy, bioethics, epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. Her publications focus on the epistemology of value-concepts, methodological and epistemological issues in bioethics, , ethics of science and technology, Kant’s moral philosophy, Wittgenstein. She is the author of Language and Critique. Wittgenstein on Meaning, Knowledge and Values, Liberal Books (in Greek); co-editor of Philosophy and the Many Faces of Science, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers; co-editor of Themes in Bioethics, Crete University Press (in Greek).Her research have been supported by funded National and European projects.

She is a member of the Editorial Board of the academic journals: International Studies in the Philosophy of Science (Routledge), Deucalion: Biannual Journal for Philosophical Research and Critique, and Bioethica.

She has served on an extensive number of committees and bodies related to bioethics. Among them, she was member of the National Committee for Deontology for Clinical Trials of the Greek Ministry of Health from 2010-2020, and member of the European Commission’s international Expert Group to advise on specific ethical issues raised by driverless mobility, which issued the «Independent Expert Report on the Ethics of Connected and Automated Vehicles, 2020» (https://europa.eu/!VV67my). She was also alternate member of the Sectorial Scientific Council of Arts and Humanities of the National Council for Research and Innovation (N.C.R.I.) of the Greek Ministry of Education during 2018- 2019, and founding Chair of the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of the University of Crete (2018- 2021).

She is vice-chair of REC of the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE); member of the Scientific Committee of Greek Patients Association; member of the Committee on Bioethics and the Ethics of the Sciences, and the Committee on Human Rights, of Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie. She has participated in the legislative committee which drafted the Legal Act for the establishment of Research Ethics Committees in Greek Academic Institutions and Research Centres (L.4521/2018).

Stage

The Commission offers to students, mostly postgraduates, both from human and life sciences the Possibility of training on issues related to bioethics

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Educational Seminars

The Commission organizes educational seminars covering a wide range of bioethics issues

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Bioethics go to school

The Commission organizes educational activities for schools (Secondary Schools and High Schools) related to bioethics

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