Aiming at facilitating the return of Greek scientists who work abroad and the development of long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships between Universities of Greece, USA and Canada, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is participating in the third cycle of the ‘’Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program’’. Following its successful participation in the first two cycles of the program, AUTh is participating in the third cycle with seven innovative research programs, among the 37 research proposals that were selected. Therefore, Thessaloniki, the Greek ‘’city of innovation’’, will host Greek diaspora scientists who will utilize their ideas and methods in Greece.
The ‘’Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program’’ enables Greek universities to host Greek scientists-academics working in the US, Canada, and South Africa with the aim of conducting collaborative research, developing joint curricula, and graduate or undergraduate student research mentoring and teaching. The program is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and is managed by the US Institute of International Education in collaboration with the Fulbright Foundation in Greece.
Specifically, AUTh’s scholars in charge, titles of the selected programs, and scholars from the US and Canada who have been awarded fellowships are:
- Christos Hadjidoukas, Assistant Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. George Filippidis from the University of South Florida (USF) in the framework of the ‘’Collaborative Research in Algae for Production of Biofuels and Bioproducts’’ programme.
- Konstantinos Chrysafis, Professor at the Department of Physics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Xanthippi Chatzistavrou from Michigan State University in the framework of the ‘’ Next generation bioactive and antibacterial glass-ceramics for tissue healing and regeneration’’ programme.
- Evangelos Efthymiou, Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Sofia Gavridou from the University of California in the framework of the ‘’ TAll BUilding Structural Design (TABU): Collaborative Research‚ Curriculum Co-development and Graduate Research Mentoring and Teaching’’ programme.
- The Department of Biology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki along with Dimitris Kardasis, Professor at the Medical School of the University of Crete, and the Department of Medicine of the University of Patras, will host Constantinos Drosatos, Professor at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in the framework of the ‘’ Fostering Metabolic Biology research in three Greek Universities via research collaborations‚ graduate teaching and student mentoring’’ programme.
- Maria Kosmidou, Professor at the Department of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Alexandra Touroutoglou from Harvard Medical School in the framework of the ‘’Fostering clinical neuroscience training and research at AUTh through fMRI experiments‚ curriculum development and mentoring: Phase II’’ programme.
- Christoforos Kotsakis, Professor at the Department of Agronomy and Surveying Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Dimitrios Bolkas from the Pennsylvania State University Commonwealth Campus in the framework of the ‘’ Collaborative Research on Improved Algorithms for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) Data Analysis in Aerial Photogrammetry and Earth Surveying Applications’’ programme.
- Sotirios Natsiavas, Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki will host Dr. Alexandros Vakakis from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the framework of the ‘’ On the application of NES (nonlinear energy sinks) to railway bridges; Collaborative research on the application of NES to complex mechanical systems including moving mass and unilateral and bilateral constraints; Co-Develop a system for vibration control and damage limitation of bridges; Collaboration of research groups’’ programme.
