Prof. Nektarios Tavernarakis, Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the Foundation for Research and Technology and Professor at the Medical School of the University of Crete, was unanimously elected yesterday Director of the Central Administration and President of FORTH, by a 7-member Evaluation Committee consisted of highly recognised Greek scientists, headed by Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos (MIT).

Short Bio

Nektarios Tavernarakis has beenthe Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the Foundation for Research and Technology since 8-11-2013, and Professor at the Medical School of the University of Crete, in Heraklion, Greece since 10-3-2014. He is the Director of the Graduate Program on BioInformatics, at the Medical School of the University of Crete, and is also heading the Neurogenetics and Ageing laboratory of IMBB. He is an elected member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, the European Molecular Biology Organization,and Academia Europaea. He earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Crete, and trained as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. His research 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 received several notable scientific prizes, including an innovation-supporting ERC Proof of Concept Grant and two ERC Advanced Investigator Grants.He is one of the first in Europe, and until now the only one in Greece, to have been awarded this highly competitive and prestigious grant twice. 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 Research Excellence award of the Foundation for Research and Technology, and the BioMedical Research Award of the Academy of Athens.

More information on the research activities of the lab is available at: http://www.elegans.gr/