The Greeks who changed the world in 2014
For yet another year Greeks from all over the world, managed to excel, to abolish the borders and make us proud with their achievements. The ellines.com team chose 12 of them, one for each month of 2014, who caused international sensation with their work and personality.
January – Nicholas Peppeas
Director of the Center for Biomaterials, Dug Delivery and Bionanotechnology of the University of Texas
Nicholas Peppas is the winner of the 2014 American Chemical Society Award in Applied Polymer Science.
February – Efterpi Kalesaki
University of Luxembourg researcher
She is the first author of the article appearing in the Physical Review X stating that for the first time, her team was able to produce and have analysed artificial graphene from traditional semiconductor materials.
March – Joseph Sifakis
In March 2014, he was appointed as the President of the new National Council for Research and Technology, Greece.
April – George Zachary
Venture Investor
Forbes Magazine published “The Midas List”, a list with the most successfull venture investors for 2014. In total 100 people are included and only one Greek made it to the list for the fourth time. Every tech investor dreams of striking gold with a portfolio full of big exits.
May – Arthur Christopoulos
Professor of Pharmacology at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Principal Research Fellow at the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
His scientific team successfully changed the function and reaction of the heart protein. The team’s target is to eliminate the side-effects caused by drugs and to further use the method to develop more potent drugs for several diseases.
June – Miguel Nikolelis
Professor of Neurobiology at Duke University in the United States and the Head of the revolutionary Walk Again project
Dr. Nicolelis worked with his team on the exo-skeleton that allowed a quadriplegic kid to kick-off the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.
July – Periklis Papadopoulos
Aerospace Engineering Professor and Astrophysicist at the University of San Jose California
Lambdasat, the first Greek satellite, constructed by Greek scientists, was launched on Sunday 13-7-2014 from Cape Canaveral.
August – Angeliki Asimaki
Pathoanatomist at Harvard University and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston
As a member of a research team, she made a breakthrough discovery of a new drug that can help those suffering from life-threatening arrhythmias.
September – Thales Papagiannakopoulos
Biologist at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research of MIT and researcher at the Biology Department
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of MIT, among them the Greek researcher, have discovered a sign of the early development of pancreatic cancer, an upsurge in certain amino acids that occurs before the disease is diagnosed and symptoms appear.
October – Yana Zavros
Associate Professor of Physiology in the Cincinnati University
Scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, among them the Greek researcher, have used human stem cells to create for the first time functional, 3-D stomach tissue, little miniature versions of the organ in its earliest stages of development.
November – Maria Flytzanis Stephanopoulou
Professor of Chemical Engineering in Tufts University and Director of Nanocatalysis and Energy Laboratory
Tufts University School of Engineering researchers led by Maria Flytzanis Stephanopoulou, designed and investigated new catalysts that have the potential to greatly reduce processing costs in future fuels, such as hydrogen.
December – Constantine Stratakis
Scientific Director of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
Researchers led by the Greek Dr. Constantine Stratakis, have honed in on the possible genetic cause of a rare condition called gigantism that causes excessive growth in children. The researchers believe the findings could lead to new treatments for gigantism.
* Greek scientists, scholars, politicians, artists, journalists, businessmen, athletes, artists, painters, policemen, photographers, actors, managers constantly emerge through investigative journalism and the invaluable help of ellines.com community members. Each year, we will present the most important Greeks, considering the influence of their work and the readability of their page on ellines.com.
