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Yiannis Laouris was inspirer and key founding member of many organizations including the following:
- Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute
- Future Worlds Center
- CYBER KIDS
- Ekkotek High-tech business incubator
- Technology for Peace
- Cyprus Society for Systemic Studies
and a number of other organizations and initiatives.
Laouris currently serves as Chair of the Board of Future Worlds Center and head of the New Media Lab and the Neuroscience Lab. He serves in the following posts:
- Executive Board Member of the Institute of 21st Century Agoras since 2010;
- Invited Expert of the Core Foresight, think tank groups create by the European Commission to anticipate global changes on the planet and to advice the EC on how ICT could facilitate shape those futures.
- Invited Expert of the The Onlife Initiative
- Represents Cyprus as Delegate of the Cybercrime Initiative launched by the Commonwealth in 2011.
He has served in the past or continues to serve:
- As National Representative and/or Expert in many European Research Networks
- COST 276: Knowledge Management (Invited Expert 2005-2006)
- COST 219ter Accessibility for all to services and terminals for next generation mobile networks (National Representative 2005-2007)
- COST 298: Participation in the Broadband society (Invited Expert 2007-2008)
- COST 2102: Cross-Modal Analysis of Verbal and Non-verbal Communication (National Representative 2008-2011), Insafe (Member of the Steering Committee 2006-present and Member of the Advisory Board 2010-2012), EU Kids Online (National Representative 2008-Present). He was appointed as Local Representative for a number of American-based Organizations such as the Institute of World Affairs (Director for Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East 1999-2003) and HasNa Inc. (Project Director 2002-2008). He was/is Director for many European Program Consortia, including:
- Extending EU Citizenship
- Cyberethics
- TeachMDGs
- Act Beyond Borders
- MobLang
For a detailed curriculum vitae of Dr. Laouris click: Full CV.
Role in Tech4Peace project
Founding member of the Technology for Peace project, together with Harry Anastasiou, Dervis Besimler, Bekir Azgin and Hrach Gregorian.
A business entrepreneur
Yiannis has
CYBER KIDS
CYBER KIDS was a nation-wide experiment launched in 1992 in Cyprus by Yiannis Laouris, George Vakanas and Maria Symeonides with the vision that introducing advanced computer technology in the lives of a critical number of young children using an educationally relevant and socially responsible, peace-enhancing curriculum would allow them to “transcend” the country’s educational and political life and move the new generation a decade ahead. By 1999, the number of children who benefited from their curriculum exceeded 15,000, which is approximately equal to 20% of the country’s youth population (ages 6-15). During the same period, the organization trained and employed 186 young and talented university graduates, thus combating brain drain while simultaneously spreading the CYBER KIDS Philosophy and knowledge to many more spheres of social life.
The Multimedia Factory
The Multimedia Factory was founded by Laouris, George Vakanas, the Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute and MISnTED Ltd. in 1993 as one of the first multimedia software and educational software producing company.
Ekkotek
Ekkotek High-tech business incubator was founded by Laouris, Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute and MISnTED Ltd. in 1999 as the first high technology business incubator in Cyprus.
Books
Yiannis authored Masks of Demons, a book that exposes stereotypes between so-called "'lifelong"' enemies.
Awards
Yiannis received numerous honors and awards throughout the years[1], the most notable being:
- Summa cum laude for his PhD (1985)
- Provost's Teaching Award and [[Medical Innovation Award] for innovation in university teaching (1991/92)
- First Award for Innovation and Creativity by the Employers and Industrialists Federation for CYBER KIDS curriculum (1998)
- The Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies Award for contributions in systems science (2008)
- Honorable Mention of the Anna Lindh Award to Future Worlds Center for promoting intercultural dialogue freedom and citizenship (2011)
A complete list of awards is available here.
Key neuroscience publications
Yiannis has over 25 peered reviewed papers in neuroscience and over 65 conference presentations.
The full list is available here.