The head of Greece’s national observatory lamented the fact that Greece did not have a space agency and hoped this will change in the future.
Speaking to Greek media, Professor Manolis Pleionis, the new head of the Athens National Observatory said that a space agency programme was absolutely necessary and should have been created years ago.
Pleionis made the ambition comments as he outlined to the Greek press his plans to make the Observatory even more open to society, through events that combined science and culture – including another visit by refugee children – while also developing new domestic and international research projects.
He noted a need for state support in order to resolve a chronic shortage of specialised staff to cover the 24-hour shifts at the Geodynamic Institute monitoring earthquake activity, or the National Tsunami Centre, as well as a shortage of space at the existing facilities due to an ever-expanding range of activities.
Pleionis also took the opportunity to defend Greek university standards and rejected criticism levelled against the government accusing it of lowering tertiary educational standards. The criticism he noted was “excessive” and that “in matters of research and universities, this government has done very well.”
He appeared confident that Greek scientists will gradually start to return from abroad thanks to the initiatives of the education ministry.
Professor Pleionis has been a professor of Observational Astronomy at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) Physics Department since 2012. He carried out research for several years in Italy at the SISSA and ICTP centres and was a guest researcher at the INAOE research centre in Mexico from 2002-2015. He was also a researcher, director of research and deputy director of the Athens Observatory from 1995-2012 with more than 200 papers on astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology published in scientific journals.
