- On January 5, 2016, the MKF established a new meteorological station in Magouliana, Arcadia to commemorate the Pioneering Climatologist Elias Mariolopoulos. Magouliana is the highest populated village in Peloponnese and one of the highest situated in Greece. The establishment of the station in Magouliana is particularly important due to the altitude of 1,365 meters. There are very few meteorological stations in operation at such an altitude throughout Southeast Europe.
- Within the framework of the Foundation’s collaboration with the Energy Committee of the Academy of Athens, the proceedings of the colloquium titled “Energy and Developmental Planning in Greece” were published. The colloquium was held on October 30, 2015 at the Institute for Biomedical Research of the Academy of Athens. (“Energy and Developmental Planning in Greece “, 2016) http://www.academyofathens.gr/el/node/1159
- On May 20, 2016, the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences in collaboration with the Hippocratic Flame and the International Hippocratic Foundation of Kos co-organized a Colloquium titled “Environment and Health”. The colloquium, which was held in the facilities of the Hippocratic Foundation of Kos, aimed at raising awareness concerning the serious issue of the environmental impact on health from an interdisciplinary perspective. Man, an indispensable part of the environment, is exposed to the air he breathes, to the water he drinks and is necessary to him not only for his homeostasis, but also for all his life activities at home, at work and in other public places such as recovery and health facilities. However, it is a fact that he is also exposed to Climate Change and through his diet he is exposed to chemical substances such as pesticides and to toxic substances in the structured environment. All of these external stimuli he receives are particularly dangerous in some phases of his life such as the embryonic phase, childhood and adolescence. Academician and Chairman of the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences, Mr. Christos Zerefos introduced the topic with his speech titled “From the old climate until the late 21st century”. Afterwards, the Associate Professor of the Agricultural University of Athens Mrs. Garyfalia Oikonomou-Antonaka spoke on “Health and modern agricultural practice. Past, present and future.” She was followed by the Candidate Doctor of the Agricultural University of Athens Mrs Elpida Fanouriou who spoke on “Hippocrates’ medicinal plants on Kos Island. Their spatial spread, productive potential and bioactivity.” Thereafter, the floor was received by Mr. Stelios Zerefos, Architect and Associate Professor at the School of Applied Arts of the Hellenic Open University, who spoke on “Energy behavior of recovery and health facilities”. The next speaker, Mrs. Cryssa Bakoula-Tzoumaka, Professor at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens presented “Environmental pollution: bearing the child in mind.” Finally, Mrs. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Professor at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Secretary of the Board at the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences, presented the “Environmental Effects on Health, particularly for critical age groups.” Discussion followed. The discussion was coordinated by Professor Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, who, after the closing of the Colloquium by the Chairs Mr. Christos Zerefos, Mr. Fanis Dimopoulos and Mr. Aristotelis Pavlidis, concluded with a reference to the personality of the Medical Doctor Stelios Nikolaos Zerefos, her student, who passed away untimely but will always remain in our hearts.
From the left, Mr. Aristotelis Pavlidis, President of the International Hippocratic Foundation of Kos (IHFK), Rev. Metropolitan of Kos & Nisyros Mr. Nathanael, the Academician and MKF Chairman, Mr. Christos Zerefos, Mrs. Sophia Dimopoulou, Mr. Stelios Zerefos, Architect and Assoc. Professor of the School of Applied Arts of Hellenic Open University (EAP), Assoc. Professor of the Agricultural University of Athens Garyfalia Oikonomou-Antonaka, Mrs. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Secretary of the MKF Board and Professor at the UOA Medical School, Mrs. Chryssa Bakoula-Tzoumaka, Professor of the UOA Medical School, Mr. Fanis Dimopoulos, Chairman of the Hippocratic Flame and Mr. Nikolaos Manousis, Neurologist-Psychiatrist, a member of the IHFK Board (Kos, 2016).
- On June 14-16, 2016 the European General Assembly of “Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service” (CAMS) met in Athens. This International meeting was co-organized by the ECMWF, the Research Centre of Physics of the Atmosphere of the Academy of Athens, the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences and the Hellenic Meteorological Service, while 200 scientists and representatives of social and economic bodies took part in it. During the meeting, new products of CAMS program were announced and there was discussion about significant improvements in accessing the Copernicus system data for the protection of health, property and ecosystems. http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/, http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/events/cams-general-assembly
From the balcony of ELECTRA Hotel, the delegates of CAMS with the Acropolis in the background (June, 2016).
- On Wednesday 13th of July, a colloquium on “The Kanaginis family and their contribution to society and culture” was held at the Marble Craft Museum in Pirgos village, Tinos. The colloquium was co-organized by the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences, the Marble Craft Museum and the Municipality of Tinos. MKF Chairman, Professor and Academician Christos Zerefos opened the colloquium while the Secretary of the Foundation Board Mrs. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Professor of Medicine at the University of Athens, was the coordinator. Thereafter, special scientists and researchers tracked the fascinating course of the family and presented the main aspects of the great contribution made by the Kanaginis family. The speakers at the colloquium were: Alekos Florakis, Doctor Ethnologist-Folklorist, Kostas Danousis, Author-Researcher, Dr. Demetrios Panagiotopoulos, Historian-Author, Andrew Karamanos, Professor Emeritus former Rector of the Agricultural University of Athens and member of the MKF Board, and George Stournaras, Professor Emeritus at the University of Athens. After the end of the presentations, a reception offered by the MKF was held in the courtyard of the Marble Craft Museum.
Standing from the left are the late Mayor of Tinos Mr. Simos Orfanos, the Chairman of the Foundation Professor C. Zerefos, the Foundation Secretary Prof. P. Nicolopoulou-Stamati, the Foundation Director Mrs. E. Xirotiri, the Foundation Vice-Chairman Mr. K. Liatsos, the Historian-Author Mr. D. Panagiotopoulos and Mr. Manolis Sochos, Vice Chairman of the Cultural Centre of Panormo, Tinos (Tinos, 2016).
The poster of the event titled “The Kanaginis family and their contribution to society and culture” (Tinos, 2016)
- The Secretary of the Foundation, Mrs. P. Nicolopoulou Stamati participated and represented the Foundation at at the International Conference “Timeless Greece”, in Ancient Olympia, 28 to 31 August, meeting under the auspices of the the President of the Republic P. Pavlopoulos, in which he attended. Mrs. P. Nicolopoulou Stamati chaired the last deduced session. More information.
- On September 19-21, 2016, the 13th International COMECAP 2016 Conference of Meteorology, Climatology and Physics of the Atmosphere was held at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The conference was co-organized by the Department of Meteorology and Climatology and the Laboratory of Physics of the Atmosphere, AUTH, the Greek Meteorological Society and the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences. More than 300 scientists participated in the Conference, where they presented the current scientific views in a wide range of fields pertaining to Meteorology and atmospheric sciences in general, thus continuing the tradition of COMECAP conferences. The conference papers were published by Springer Nature Publishing. (“A review of surface and lower troposphere ozone concentration characteristics around the urban area of Athens, the Aegean Sea and at the Central and Eastern Mediterranean” , 2016) http://comecap2016.geo.auth.gr/, http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319350943
Seated from the left are UOA Professor P. Nastos, AUTH Professor T. Karakostas, the Chairman of the Foundation Professor C. Zerefos and AUTH Professor A. Bais.
- On September 26, 2016, during the opening ceremony for the International MedClivar 20162016 Conference (http://medclivar2016conf.eu/) which was held in the Ceremony Hall of the University of Athens, the “WMO Professor Mariolopoulos Trust Fund Award” was presented by Dr. Geir Braathen Senior Scientific Officer of Atmospheric Environment Research Division (AER) Research Department (RES), WMO, who represented the WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas, and by the Chairman of the Foundation, Academician Christos Zerefos. The ceremony commenced with a speech delivered by Mr. Geir Braathen, who first analyzed the award-winning studies and then went on to make an extensive reference to the activities of the Foundation and the international Mariolopoulos Award in particular. The award for 2016 went in half to the following studies:
- “Do seasonal-to-decadal climate predictions underestimate the predictability of the real world?” by Rosie Eade, Doug Smith, Adam Scaife, Emily Wallace, Nick Dunstone, Leon Hermanson, and Niall Robinson published in Geophysical Research Letters, and
- “Detrended Partial-Cross-Correlation Analysis: A New Method for Analyzing Correlations in Complex System” by Naiming Yuan, Zuntao Fu, Huan Zhang, Lin Piao, Elena Xoplaki & Juerg Luterbacher, published in Nature Scientific.
The event was honored by the presence of Prof. Napoleon Maraveyias, UOA Vice Rector, Prof. Iakovos Ganoulis, YPEKA Secretary-General for Water, Prof. Piero Lionello, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche e Ambientali, University of Salento, Chair of the MedCLIVAR network, Prof. Kanaris Tsigganos, Chairman of the National Athens Observatory, Prof. Panagiotis Nastos, UOA, Dr. Geir Braathen, representative of WMO Secretary-General, and Dr. Alexander Theocharis, HCMR.
From the award ceremony. From the left, the MKF Chairman Mr. C. Zerefos, award-winner Dr. Rosie Eade, award-winner Dr. Naiming Yuan, Dr. Geir Braathen and the UOA Vice Rector, Prof. Napoleon Maraveyias (University of Athens, 2016).
A commemorative photo after the award ceremony. Standing from the left, Professor Andrew Karamanos, MKF Board member, the award-winner Dr. Rosie Eade, the award-winner Dr. Naiming Yuan, Mrs. Efi Xirotiri, MKF Director, and MKF Chairman Mr. C. Zerefos, Academician (University of Athens, 2016).
- From October 31 to November 2, 2016, the Library of Alexandria hosted a Conference titled “The Alexandria International Conference on Maritime and Underwater Archaeology”. At the Conference, the MK Foundation was represented by Professor C. Repapis and Dr. C. Tzalas, Director of the Hellenic Institute for Studies of Ancient and Medieval Alexandria, with a paper titled “The Underwater Archaeological and Geophysical Surveys of the Greek Mission in Alexandria, Egypt (1998-2016)” which was published in the issue of the Conference Summaries.
- The Chairman of the Foundation, Professor Christos Zerefos represented the Foundation at the GEO High Level Group on Earth Observations, which took place in Saint Petersburg on November 7, 2016. During the processes, Professor Zerefos designated Dr. Evangelos Gerasopoulos as his deputy for XIII GEO General Assembly. Mr. Zerefos also put forward a proposal related to the synergy of geophysical phenomena at the parallel meeting of the International Commission on Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) on November 8, 2016. http://www.earthobservations.org
- The Foundation Secretary, Mrs. P. Nicolopoulou-Stamati took part and represented the Foundation in the 13th Educational Colloquium titled “The potential of environmental effects on children: Developments, emerging dangers and prevention” on Saturday 26/11/2016, time 13:30 – 19:10, at the Cyprus Institute for Neurology & Genetics, where she delivered the keynote address titled: “Potential impacts from cosmetic substances on the fetus, the child and the mother. Precautionary measures”, which was based on her published work titled “Nicolopoulou-Stamati, P., Hens, L., & Sasco, A. J. (2015). Cosmetics as endocrine disruptors: are they a health risk? Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, 16(4), 373-383”, Springer 2015”. http://www.cyprus-child-environment.org/easyconsole.cfm/id/366