FORTH honours the memory of Fotis Kafatos, almost a year since his passing, by organizing on 25 September the first in a series of annual Scientific Symposia. In addition to his pioneering research discoveries, Fotis had been the youngest full Professor at Harvard University as well as, for more than a decade, the Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the founding President of the European Research Council (ERC). He had also been the youngest Biology Professor at the University of Athens, the first researcher in Molecular Biology in Greece, the first Professor at the Department of Biology at the University of Crete and the founding Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas. His collaborators remember him as a loyal and valued friend who guided them all during the development of the Institute, continuing his support even later on, after leaving the position of IMBB Director.

This year’s Symposium will present seven scientific talks focusing on the interaction between mosquitoes and disease, the subject that Fotis had focused on over the last years of his life. The presentations will be in English and will take place at the FORTH main auditorium on 25 September 9.00-18.00 with free entrance.

The speakers will be Dr. Carolina Barillas-Mury (NIAID, NIH), Prof. Nora Besansky (University of Notre Dame), Prof. George Christophides (Imperial College London), Prof. George Dimopoulos (Johns Hopkins University), Prof. Tony James (UCI and UCSD), Dr. Lena Levashina (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology) and Prof. Petros Ligoxygakis (University of Oxford).

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