Diana Tischenko

Diana Tishchenko is a Ukrainian-born violinist acclaimed for her expressive artistry, versatility, and engagement with contemporary music. Her performances are noted for their depth, individuality, and wide stylistic range, combining classical repertoire with modern and rarely performed works.

She gained international recognition after winning the Grand Prix at the Long-Thibaud-Crespin International Competition in 2018. As an ECHO Rising Star in the 2022/23 season, she performed in major European venues, including the Philharmonie de Paris and the Wiener Konzerthaus.

She has since appeared with leading orchestras and at prominent festivals across Europe. Highlights of the 2025/26 season include performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gulbenkian Orchestra, as well as appearances at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Konzerthaus Berlin.

Born in Simferopol, she studied in Kyiv, Berlin, and Graz. Her debut album, Strangers in PARadISe (2019), received wide critical acclaim.

Alongside her performing career, she is actively involved in cultural and charitable initiatives, including participation in the environmental project The Uncertain Four Seasons on the island of Delos, Greece. Now based in Berlin, she holds Ukrainian and German citizenship. In 2023, she was appointed Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Vangelis Karkaletsis

Dr. Vangelis Karkaletsis is President of NCSR “Demokritos” and one of the key architects of Greece’s national strategy for Artificial Intelligence. With extensive experience in AI, European infrastructures, and deep-tech ecosystems, he is leading the transformation of NCSR “Demokritos” into a regional hub of technological excellence. He also serves as the technical coordinator of the Greek AI Factory “Pharos”, coordinates the Smart Attica European Digital Innovation Hub for AI, and is a member of the coordinating team of the European AI-on-Demand platform through the DeployAI project.

Dimosthenis Sarigiannis

Dimosthenis (Denis) Sarigiannis is Director and President of the Board of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) and Professor of Environmental Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with parallel appointments in Environmental Health Engineering at the University School for Advanced Studies of Pavia (IUSS), in the Urology department of the Medical School of Johns Hopkins University and in Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. He holds a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Internationally recognized as a pioneer of translational exposomics, his work quantitatively links external exposures to internal dose, molecular perturbation, and health risk across the life course. He is equally recognised for operationalising Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) in chemicals, materials and products through AI-enabled computational toolboxes that bridge next-generation risk assessment with industrial innovation and regulatory practice.

Prior to his academic career, he held senior leadership roles at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), including Scientific Coordinator at the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Assistant to the JRC Director General and positions central to the development of the REACH Regulation on chemical safety.

He has contributed to over 50 international research projects — coordinating 15 — and currently leads the Center of Excellence on Cancer Theranostics at NHRF and the ENVESOME Horizon Europe initiative while serving on the Management Board in the ~€400M PARC partnership. He has authored 233 peer-reviewed papers, 500 conference papers, and 28 book chapters, and has been listed among Stanford’s top 2% of scientists worldwide since 2018. His contributions to the safety of pharmaceuticals and chemicals have been recognised with the Bo Holmstedt Award from Eurotox and multiple excellence prizes. Prize by the European Society of Toxicology and the Bo Holmstedt Foundation.

Nick Sergis

Dr. Nick Sergis is a researcher in the field of Space Physics. From 2006 to 2020 he worked at the Office of Space Research and Technology of the Academy of Athens in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). His research work includes 80 scientific papers with more than 2.800 citations and many invited lectures-seminars in Greece and abroad. In 2009 and 2018 he received NASA awards for his participation in the Cassini-Huygens mission. 

Dr. Sergis has experience in managing research programs and has served as an evaluator for proposals submitted for funding to NASA, the European Commission and national agencies in Europe. He has led/participated in research groups in the field of Space Science and Applications, in collaboration with institutes from Europe and the USA. 

Since 2020, he is serving as CEO of the Hellenic Space Center (HSC), the National Space Agency of Greece. His responsibilities include the coordination/supervision of the administrative and scientific staff of the HSC to ensure the effective operation and achievement of the Agency’s strategic goals, among which is the formulation of a National Space Policy-Strategy. 

Dr. Sergis is a member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Dimitris Papastergiou

Dimitris Papastergiou was born in 1973 in Trikala.

He graduated from the Polycladic Lyceum of Trikala and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of NTUA (National Technical University of Athens). At the same time, he attended journalism courses, while he maintains strong ties with technology and the internet, a relationship that was strengthened at the Multimedia Laboratory of NTUA.

In 2001 he built and presented, together with a group of his colleagues, the first integrated website for the Prefecture of Trikala, 3kala.gr.

Since 2002 he has been practicing the profession of Electrical and Computer Engineer in the city of Trikala. He was involved in studies and construction of private electromechanical projects and the creation of software programs. In 2007 he entered the field of renewable energy and has constructed more than 300 private renewable energy projects.

His involvement in the community began in 2002, with his election to the City Council. He was re-elected in 2006, and in 2014 he was elected Mayor of Trikkaion and member of the Board of Directors of KEDE. He was re-elected Mayor in 2019 and, in the same year, he was elected President of the KEDE.

He is married to the engineer Soula Brakis and is the happy father of Faye, Kostas and Nikos.

From June 2023, he is Minister of Digital Governance in the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Jochen Sandig

Jochen Sandig was born in Esslingen, Germany. In 1990 he moved to Berlin to study psychology and philosophy. Following the founding of the Tacheles Art Centre in 1990, in 1993, together with Sasha Waltz, he founded Sasha Waltz & Guests. In 1996 he cofounded Sophiensæle, an independent venue for dance and theatre productions in Berlin Mitte, which he directed until 1999. From 2000 to 2004 Jochen Sandig was a member of the artistic direction at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. Since 2004 he is the director of the independent Sasha Waltz & Guests GmbH. In 2006, together with Folkert Uhde, Jochen Sandig founded the Radialsystem in Berlin. In 2010 he was awarded the French cultural order “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”. In February 2012, he debuted as director with “human requiem”, a staging of Johannes Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” in cooperation with the Rundfunkchor in Berlin and Simon Halsey. Since its premiere the production travelled to Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, Granada, Rotterdam, Athens, Hong-Kong, Adelaide and New York. The production was awarded with the “Classical Next Innovation Award 2016”. As a social and political activist he became one of the three co-founders of the World Human Forum in Delphi, Greece. From 2019 to 2024, Jochen Sandig was artistic and executive director of the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele / Internationale Festspiele Baden-Württemberg. In the year 2022 Jochen Sandig was awarded the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Demetris Athanasoulis

Demetrios Athanasoulis, (Ph.D. in Byzantine Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessalonike and Université Paris I- Panthéon-Sorbonne), is director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades (Hellenic Ministry of Culture). He has served as curator of the byzantine monuments of Elis (Peloponnese) and Director of Byzantine Antiquities of Arcadia, Argolid and Corinthia, president of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, expert archaeologist of the Council of Europe, member of international scientific of Boards and committees.

He has conducted numerous archaeological field research projects in the Peloponnese and the Cyclades and has planned and carried out large-scale European programs for the enhancement of monuments and archaeological sites, digital applications and research as well as dozens of restoration projects on ancient and medieval monuments. He has also planned, studied, and implemented new archaeological museums as well as important archaeological exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He has co-organized international exhibitions of contemporary art in museums and archaeological sites.

He has participated in international scientific conferences and has published numerous papers and articles in the fields of medieval architecture and archaeology as well as of the management of the cultural heritage; he has also been scientific editor of exhibition catalogues.

He has been awarded twice by the Europa Nostra for restoration projects of monuments.

Dr Athena Coustenis

Athena Coustenis is Director of Research with the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) of France, based at Paris Observatory in Meudon. She is an astrophysicist with a specialty in space exploration and planetary sciences. Her research is devoted to the investigation of planetary atmospheres and surfaces, their origins and evolution, with emphasis on the habitable conditions in the Solar System and exoplanets. She is involved in the definition, development and exploitation of space missions to solar system bodies with high astrobiological potential, in particular Mars, icy moons like Titan and Enceladus, Saturn’s satellites, and Jupiter’s Ganymede and Europa, and exoplanets. She is currently co-investigator of the ESA JUICE and ARIEL missions to the Jupiter system and to study the exoplanets, and of JAXA’s MMX mission to Mars’ satellite Phobos.

Beyond her scientific work, A. Coustenis is currently involved or has in the past participated or led several advisory groups within ESA and NASA and other international bodies, helping establish space programs and optimize their scientific return. She is currently Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection and a member of the Space Programme Committee of CNES. She is also the Past Chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, and the President of the IAU Division F.

Vassilis Lamprinoudakis

Professor Emeritus of Archaeology, University of Athens. Corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris, and of the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna. Member of the Archaeological Society at Athens. Member of the German and the Austrian Archaeological Institutes. Member of the Committee for the Preservation of the Acropolis Monuments. Secretary General of the Society for the Promotion of Ancient Theatres ‘DIAZOMA’. Member of the Board of the International Network of Ancient Asclepieia. Director of excavations in Epidauros, Naxos, and Palaiomanina/Metropolis in Acarnania. Director of projects of enhancement of archaeological sites in Naxos and Epidauros. Prize of Europa Nostra for the excavation and the enhancement of the sites Yria and Sangri/Naxos. Publication of 16 books and monographs, as well as 211 papers on ancient Greek architecture and art, ancient topography, ancient Greek religion, epigraphy, theory of Archaeology and management of monuments. Co-editor of the Lexikon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae and the Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum. Honored by the President of the Hellenic Republic “for promoting the Archaeology and the History of Greece throughout the world”.

Alexandra Mitsotaki

Alexandra Mitsotaki is co-founder and president of the World Human Forum, a global citizen initiative which has its symbolic base in Delphi, launching international initiatives from important sites such as Delos, Aristotle’s Lyceum in Athens and Eleusis.

In 1998 she founded ActionAid Hellas, the Greek affiliate of ActionAid, the international organisation against poverty and injustice. For the last 10 years she was in charge of the Hellenic Cultural Centre in Paris of which she is now vice-chair. Reacting to the financial crisis in Greece, in 2014 she co-founded Action Finance Initiative, the first microcredit organisation in Greece.

She is a member of the High-Level Roundtable of the New European Bauhaus, an initiative of the European Commission aiming to connect the European Green Deal to our living spaces. Her interdisciplinary experience over the past years has made her a profound supporter of the importance of a holistic approach to tackle the big challenges of our time.