Giorgos Grammatikakis (; born 21 May 1939, in

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban Ar ...

) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

physicist, writer, and the dean emeritus of the

University of Crete The University of Crete (UoC; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης) is a multi-disciplinary, research-oriented institution in Crete, Greece, located in the cities of Rethymno (official seat) and Heraklion, and one of the country's most aca ...

. In 2014, he was elected

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP).

Life

Giorgos Grammatikakis was born in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

on 21 May 1939.

Academic career

He studied Physics at the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

and at the

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. In 1982, he was appointed Professor for Physics at the University of Crete. Interested in the structure of matter and cosmology, he was engaged in the NESTOR Project, an international scientific collaboration to deploy a

neutrino telescope A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos only weakly interact with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino d ...

on the sea floor off Pylos. In 1990 he was elected Rector of the University of Crete, and served as Chairman of the

Ionian University The Ionian University (Greek: Iόνιο Πανεπιστήμιο) is a university located in the Ionian Islands, Greece. It is one of the newest institutions of Higher Education in Greece, created in 1984 pursuant to presidential order 83/84 Φ ...

, Corfu. In May 26th, 2010, he was honoured by the Hellenic Physical Society for his contributions to education and science. He is also a successful author of popular science books on

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

and physics: * "Η κόμη της Βερενίκης", 1990/2006, , made into a TV series "Αναζητώντας την Βερενίκη" by

ERT1 ERT1 ( el, ΕΡΤ1, "ERT Ena"), is a Greek free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation ( el, EPT – Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση). It is the c ...

. * "Κοσμογραφήματα", 1999, * "Η αυτοβιογραφία του φωτός", 2006, * "Συνομιλίες με το φως", 2009, * "Ένας αστρολάβος του ουρανού και της ζωής", 2012, Grammatikakis has been a member of the Board of Directors of the former state-owned broadcasting corporation ERT and is vice president of the

Greek National Opera The Greek National Opera ( el, Εθνική Λυρική Σκηνή, ''Ethniki Lyriki Skini'') is the country's state lyric opera company, located in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center at the south suburb of Athens, Kallithea. It is a ...

Member of the European Parliament

In the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

, he was elected one of two MEPs on the list of the newly founded political party The River. He affiliates with the parliamentary group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and is member of the

Committee on Culture and Education The Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities of the Committee This committee has focused on the well-being of all members of the human race and the increased opportunities for educat ...

and the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

References

External links

*
Member profile
on the website of the S&D parliamentary group
Emeritus profile
on the website of the Department of Physics, University of Crete {{DEFAULTSORT:Grammatikakis, Giorgos 1939 births Scientists from Heraklion Living people The River (Greece) MEPs MEPs for Greece 2014–2019 20th-century Greek physicists Academic staff of the University of Crete