Born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1945, Prof.
Metakides received as a Fulbright scholar a Master of Science
in Electrical Engineering and Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematical
Logic from Cornell University in 1971. He pursued an academic
career in the U.S.A. at MIT, Cornell University and Rochester
University until 1978, when he returned to Greece to take the
Chair of Logic at the University of Patras.
He
has published numerous articles and books in the areas of Mathematical
Logic, Computer Science and Science Policy and is a frequent invited
speaker at major international conferences. He holds honorary doctorates
from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Technical University
of Bucharest and the University of Thessaloniki and is an honorary
professor of the University of Moscow. He is a foreign member of
the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and an honorary member of
the Romanian Academy of Science. He has received the Medal of Honour
of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, the Polish Information Society
Recognition Award, for his efforts to build co-operation between
IT professionals in Poland and the EU, and the Telecom Europe Prize
Salvà I Campillo for his contribution to the development
and dissemination of new information and communication technologies
in Europe.
Since
1984 he has held senior positions with responsibility for R&D
policy, funding and international co-operation in European institutions,
including president of the Research Group of the European Council
and member of the ESPRIT (European Strategic Programme of Research
in Information Technology) Management Committee and of the NATO
Science Committee at different times between 1984 and 1987. He established
and headed the department for Basic Research and International Scientific
Relations in Information Technologies at the European Commission
from 1988 to 1993. He was the director of the 2 billion Euro ESPRIT
Programme in the European Commission’s Industry Directorate
General from 1993 until its completion in 1998.
Until
November 2002 he was director of Essential Technologies and Infrastructures
in Europe’s 4 billion Euro Information Society Technologies
(IST) Programme (1998-2002), in the Information Society Directorate
General which - besides funding and co-ordinating R&D in information
and communication technologies in the European Union - also covers
information society and telecommunications policy and regulation.
He
is an active contributor to the promotion of co-operation between
the European Union and other regions. He has instigated the establishment
of research agreements between the EU and the USA (including the
launch of the World Wide Web Consortium, W3C, and a joint initiative
on the dependability of critical infrastructures). In addition to
collaborative activities with Japan, China, Russia and the countries
of Latin America, he leads a number of joint actions in Central
& Eastern Europe as well as the Balkan and Mediterranean regions. |