Online
With great joy, we delivered the 1st International Symposium 'WOMEN+ Women Positive!' for Greek women in STEM!
A few months ago, we felt the need to organize an event that would bring together hundreds of Greek women working in STEM fields worldwide, aiming to send a strong message of presence and recognition, while inspiring younger generations. We immediately started discussions and planning. Subsequently, three additional organizations joined us: R.E.A.L. Science, Lean In Hellas: Women in Tech, and Greek Girls Code. After months of preparation, the results fully rewarded us! We spent three days filled with science, positivity, and new collaborations!
We feel incredibly grateful to the speakers who agreed to share their work, knowledge, and experiences, offering valuable advice to the younger generation. In total, 38 Greek women scientists connected from various parts of Europe and America and, through 7 scientific sessions, introduced us to various STEM fields, with applications in both research and industry. The sessions covered topics such as Technology and Product, Biosciences, Mathematics, Physics, Startups and Strategy, Engineering, and Career Advice, warmly embraced by an audience that exceeded 800 people in total!
Through the two networking sessions we organized, we reached the following conclusions:
- There is a great need for collective networking and information exchange. In our effort to meet this need, we created the channel on Slack, GreekWomenInSTEM_community, a space where we can get to know each other, interact, and collaborate. You are all welcome!
- Mentoring is essential at all stages of a career, both in research and industry. From drafting a CV to career change, there is a great need for help and support. That's why we're here. Check out our Mentoring program for more information.
We congratulate the chairs of all the participating groups on their presentations and individual session organization. However, we believe it is vital to point out that a group of women worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that everything ran properly.
General Management: Lina Ntokou (GWiS) and Eleni Sinopoulou (R.E.A.L. Science)
Marketing: Myrto Patraskaki, Danae Korre, Chrysovalantou Kalaitzidou, Katerina Bobota, Maria Vlastara, Tatiana Charikleia Styliari
Website Curation: Kelly Kousi, Lina Ntokou, Domi Sea
Scientific awards to some of the wonderful women contributing to science from the early stages of their careers.
One of the highlights of this wonderful three-day event was the awards ceremony we organized to honor women at the beginning of their careers in STEM fields. This event would not have been possible without the sponsors of the awards, whom we sincerely thank for their support and contribution. In total, 9 awards were given, totaling 2,000 euros. Congratulations to all the women who participated! Because selecting the winners was extremely difficult, we invited the finalists of each category to the ceremony, acknowledging a total of 29 scientists. This was just a small sample of the outstanding potential among Greek women in STEM!
Finalists and winners were selected by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Each award has been sponsored by the specified donor and delivered to winners by the non-profit organization AEGIS. You can find the Award Ceremony video at the end of this section.
Honorary award for an early-career female scientist after Ph.D.
The winner of the category Honorary Award for an early career woman scientist in STEM after Ph.D. was Eleftheria Efthymiou. In addition to the award certificate, Eleftheria received a monetary reward of 500€, donated by Deloitte.
The finalists in the category were: Eleftheria Efthymiou, Nikoleta Glynatsi, Aggeliki Chanteli.
Eleftheria (Elina) Efthymiou is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at York College of Pennsylvania. Her academic journey started in Xanthi where she obtained her 5-year Diploma in Civil Engineering from Democritus University of Thrace. She holds a MSc in Bridge Engineering and obtained her PhD in Structural Engineering from City, University of London. She spent two years in Dallas, TX conducting post-doctoral research in structural and earthquake engineering before she joined York College. Her research interests vary from structural dynamics and bridge engineering to earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. Elina is passionate about educating the future generations of Engineers.
Honorary award for an early-career female scientist before Ph.D.
The winner of the category Honorary Award for an early career woman scientist in STEM before Ph.D. was Ariadne Nichol. In addition to the award certificate, Ariadne received a monetary reward of 300€, donated by the Swiss Association of Greek Scientists.
The finalists in the category were: Ariadne Nichol, Nafsika Papaioanou, and Kyriaki Dariva.
Ariadne Nichol is a medical student at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and a part-time researcher at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. She earned her bachelor's degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, where she graduated with Honors in Ethics in Society and was a Public Service Scholar. She has a technical background in molecular biology along with public health experience at United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, Ariadne examines the ethical implications of utilizing new scientific techniques and biotechnologies such as artificial intelligence in medicine.
Mathematics Award
The winner of the Mathematics Award was Zoi Terzopoulou. In addition to the award certificate, Zoi received a monetary prize of 120€, sponsored by Elsevier.
Finalists in the Mathematics Award category were: Zoi Terzopoulou, Effie Papageorgiou, and Eirini Gkolfi.
Zoi Terzopoulou is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Paris-Dauphine. She has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Athens, a postgraduate degree in Logic and a PhD in Informatics from the University of Amsterdam. She has also been a visiting researcher at the University of Technology in Singapore, the University of Bergen in Norway, and the Research Institute of Economics in Paris. Her research is interdisciplinary, with core mathematical models of collective decision making. She has been featured in international artificial intelligence conferences in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, as well as in major economics journals.
Award in Biosciences
The winner of the Biosciences Award was Magda Bletsa. In addition to the award certificate, Magda received a monetary prize of 150€, sponsored by the Hellenic Bioscientific Association in USA (HBA-USA).
Finalists in the Biosciences Award category were: Magda Bletsa, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Evgenia Mitsou
Magda Bletsa is a postdoctoral researcher at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium). She obtained her MSc and BSc degrees from the Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, University of Thessaly. In 2021, she completed her PhD in Biomedical Sciences. In brief, her research focuses on viral evolution and pathogen molecular epidemiology. She is particularly interested in identifying the evolutionary processes that shape viral genetic diversity using a combination of wet-lab approaches (controlled experiments, high-throughput sequencing) and computational tools (bioinformatics, phylogenetics, phylodynamics).
Award in Engineering
The winner of the Engineering Award was Eva Pappa. In addition to the award certificate, Eva received a monetary prize of 200€, sponsored by the MONOLITHOS Catalysts και Recycling Ltd.
Finalists in the Biosciences Award category were: Iliana Papadopoulou, Eva Pappa, Charikleia Stoura.
Evanthia (Eva) Pappa is a Material Scientist who holds a Master’s in Polymer Science and Technology both at the University of Patras, in Greece. She completed her PhD studies in the field of composite materials at the University of Edinburgh, in United Kingdom. She served as an Early- Career Marie-Curie Researcher in Ireland, a Teaching Assistant in the UK and she did her internship at Carlos III Universidad de Madrid in Spain. At the moment she is working as a Researcher at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) dealing with materials and project development. She is involved in many extra-curriculum activities as well as to many volunteering initiatives and her moto is Everything happens for a reason.
Award in Physics
The winner of the Physics Award was Stella Tsilia. In addition to the award certificate, Stella received a monetary prize of 150€, sponsored by Ocean Industries.
Finalists in the Physics Award category were: Chrysafi Iouliana, Georgia Kanli, Stella Tsilia.
Stella Tsilia studied Physics in Athens, and obtained a master's degree in Astronomy at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She has been extensively involved in science communication and STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics), as well as volunteering. She has taught educational robotics, for children and adults as well as workshops on science, space and teaching. She has been a member of organizing teams for scientific events. She currently works on software development. She loves the sea, the starry sky, and the adventures, and she believes in the positive change that each of us can bring to the world.
Award in Technology
The winner of the Technology Award was Eleftheria Briakou. In addition to the award certificate, Eleftheria received a monetary prize of 100€, sponsored by PenguinSoft.
Finalists in the Technology Award category were: Eleftheria Briakou, Gloria Dwomoh, Konstantina Rodi.
Eleftheria Briakou is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a member of the CLIP lab advised by Marine Carpuat. Eleftheria’s research interests span various Natural Language Processing (NLP) fields such as computational semantics, machine translation, style transfer, crowdsourcing, generation evaluation and metrics, among others. Her Ph.D. work focuses on detecting differences in meaning across languages and explores how they question common assumptions related to using data when developing NLP technology.
Award in Medicine
The winner of the Medicine Award was Foteini Vasilopoulou. In addition to the award certificate, Foteini received a monetary prize of 150€, sponsored by Hellenic Bioscientific Association in USA (HBA-USA).
Finalists in the Medicine Award category were: Foteini Vasilopoulou, Marina Anastasiou, Myrto Moutafi.
Foteini Vasilopoulou obtained her BSc in Pharmacy from the University of Athens, Greece (Sep. 2016). Soon after graduation, she joined the group of Prof. Mercè Pallàs at the University of Barcelona, Spain, where she recently completed her PhD (Cum Laude) in Neuropharmacology/Biotechnology (Sep. 2021). In the context of her PhD, she participated in a multidisciplinary drug discovery project, investigating the neuroprotective role of selective I2-Imidazoline receptor ligands using in vivo and in vitro models of Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegeneration. In her next career step, she aspires to investigate complex Alzheimer’s disease mechanisms with an overarching goal to identify new targets and biomarkers for therapeutic interventions.
Award in Chemistry
The winner of the Chemistry Award was Zoi Piperigkou. In addition to the award certificate, Zoi received a monetary prize of 150€, sponsored by The Regional Department of Peloponnese and West Greece of Association of Greek Chemists.
Finalists in the Chemistry Award category were: Zoi Piperigkou, Apostolia Tsiasioti, Eugenia Vasileiadou.