George Nounesis is the Director & Chairman of the Board of the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” for a four-year term (2017-2021).  Dr. Nounesis studied Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.  He obtained his PhD at the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Minnesota.  He completed a three-year Postdoctoral training at the Chemistry Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Executive Education Program on “Innovation for Economic Development” at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  He is currently the Director of the Biomolecular Physics Laboratory at Demokritos.  Prior to returning to Greece he held Research Staff appointments at the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and at the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory. He has spent sabbatical leaves at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal at CNRS and the Chemistry Department of the University of Bordeaux I as an Invited Professor.  His research is mainly focused on structural and thermodynamic studies of nano-structured soft materials as well as biomolecules, primarily proteins.  For his work he has received awards and distinctions from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, the Empirikion Foundation, the United States Department of the Navy and the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota.  He serves as an Expert Reviewer of several National and International Research Funding Organizations in the European Commission, the USA (NSF), Poland, Turkey, Belgium and Greece.