Astronomer - Astrophysicist

John Seiradakis was a radioastronomer and professor in the Department of Physics in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. After taking his first degree in Athens, he went to the Victoria University of Manchester in the UK where he completed his MSc and PhD. His main research interests are in Neutron Stars (Pulsar searches – Emission mechanisms – High frequency radio observations – High frequency polarization – Interstellar medium investigations), Flare Stars (UBV Optical Observations – Flare monitoring – Studies of the atmospheric activity of Flare Stars and RS CVn stars) and The Centre of our Galaxy (High frequency radio maps – Polarization – Modeling of radio observations).

With about 90 publications to his credit, he was very active both in research, teaching and the promotion of astronomy. His publications include 44 papers in refereed journal as well as educational books and conference proceedings. In addition to chairing many committees at his university and representing Greece on numerous European and international organizations, he has served as both Secretary and President of the Hellenic Astronomical Society.

Xenophon Moussas is a Professor of Space Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

He has a BSc in Physics (1971) and a Ph.D. (1977) from the from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has 40 years of experience in Space Physics working at the University of Athens and at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (formerly Senior Visiting Research Fellow for many years).

He has written more than 110 articles in scientific journals, several in conference proceedings and several book reviews. He is co-author of a book on Space Physics (Greek Open University Publishing House, Patras, 2003), co-author of (a) Astrophysics, (b) Space Physics, (c) Astrophysics Laboratory Exercises, notes for the students.

He has supervised 25 PhDs (he presently supervises 4 PhD students), some 250 BSc theses and several MSc dissertations.

Research interests:

Space Physics: solar wind, STEREO mission (NASA, launched 2006), Ulysses mission, solar Alfven surface, the heliosphere in 2 D,

Cosmic rays,

Planetary environment Mars ionosphere and magnetosphere, Titan and Enceladus

Solar physics: ARTEMIS IV Digital Radio Spectrograph (7m diameter) at Thermopylae, Greece (French-Greek collaboration),

WIND/WAVES spacecraft experiment,

History of Astronomy: The Antikythera Mechanism, ancient celestial spheres.

More than 150 articles in encyclopedias.

Many popular science articles

Many Radio and TV programmes and interviews

Distinction: American Geophysical Union: editor’s citation for "excellence in refereeing" in Space Physics, Geophysical Research Letters, 2001.

NASA award, 2009,(Group achievement award to Ulysses team for outstanding multidisciplinary team effort which culminated in the highly successful operations and prolific scientific return of the Ulysses mission).

Hipparchus award of the Arcadia Cultural Organization.

Peer reviewer for European Science Foundation.

Exhibitions of the Antikythera Mechamism:

I had had several exhibitions or contributed to exhibitions: NASA, New York (Children Museum of Manhattan), UNESCO (Paris, inauguration of the International Year of Astronomy, Upsala Gustavianum Museum (the exhibition doubled the number of visitors in the year), The Library of Alexandria, Institute of Astronomy of the Slovac Academy, Crakow University, Olsztyn Planetarium (Copernicus observatory in Poland), Budapest, Cairo, Constantine (7eme salon' astronomie, Algeria), The Venetian Institute of Science, Letters and Arts, Cyprus, and many in Greece (Ionian Center, The University of Athens, University of Patras, many schools).

​http://scholar.google.gr/citations?user=b8aDvyIAAAAJ&hl=el

Mike Edmunds is a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University in Wales, and has just served as Head of School for 3 and 1/2 years. Both his first degree and PhD were from the University of Cambridge.

His main areas of research have been in the determination and interpretation of the chemical composition of galaxies and the Universe. He has also worked on the origin of interstellar dust. He has served on many committees and panels of the UK Research Councils, The Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics. He is currently a member of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.

He is lead academic on the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, which is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

He is author of more than a hundred academic papers. His 2004 invited George Darwin Lecture “The Elementary Universe” to the Royal Astronomical Society has been published in the August 2005 issue of Astronomy & Geophysics.