Giorgos Grammatikakis

Giorgos Grammatikakis(Greek: Γιώργος Γραμματικάκης; born 21 May 1939, in Heraklion) is a Greek physicist, writer, and the dean emeritus of the University of Crete. In 2014, he was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Giorgos Grammatikakis was born in Heraklion on 21 May 1939.

Academic career

He studied Physics at the University of Athens and at the Imperial College London. In 1982, he was appointed Professor for Physics at the University of Crete. Interested in the structure of matter and cosmology, he was engaged in the NESTOR Project, an international scientific collaboration to deploy a neutrino telescope on the sea floor off Pylos. In 1990 he was elected Rector of the University of Crete, and served as Chairman of the Ionian University, Corfu. For his contributions to education and science he was honoured by the Hellenic Physical Society.

He is also a successful author of popular science books on cosmology and physics:

• "Η κόμη της Βερενίκης", 1990/2006, ISBN 960-7309-24-3, made into a TV series "Αναζητώντας την Βερενίκη" by ERT1.
• "Κοσμογραφήματα", 1999, ISBN 960-7478-26-6
• "Η αυτοβιογραφία του φωτός", 2006, ISBN 960-524-207-9
• "Συνομιλίες με το φως", 2009, ISBN 978-960-6882-01-2
• "Ένας αστρολάβος του ουρανού και της ζωής", 2012, ISBN 978-960-524-394-4

Grammatikakis has been a member of the Board of Directors of the former state-owned broadcasting corporation ERT and is vice president of the Greek National Opera.

Member of the European Parliament

In the 2014 European Parliament election, he was elected one of two MEPs on the list of the newly founded political party The River. He affiliates with the parliamentary group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and is member of the Committee on Culture and Education and the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.