The Academy of Athens, during the Plenary Session of November 11, 2021, elected as its corresponding members, in the Class of Sciences, from Greek scientists abroad, in the field of Electrical Engineering, the distinguished Professor of Wireless Telecommunications and Director of the University. Minnesota, USA Mr. George Giannakis and from foreign scientists, in the field of Physiology, the distinguished Professor of Anesthesiology and Vice President of Research at the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Director of the Department of Molecular and Translational Biomedicine of the same Department, Mr. Sadis Matalon.
George Giannakis received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens in 1981 and then went to the USA for postgraduate studies where he received a Master’s Degree (MSc) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Athens in 1983 and his MSc in Mathematics in 1986 from the Southern California University (USC) in Los Angeles. He received his Doctorate (PhD) from the same University in 1986.
From 1987 to 1998 he served as a Professor at the University of Virginia. He has been a Professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA since 1999. At this University he holds the ADC Chair (ADC Endowed Chair in Wireless Communications), as well as the McKnight Chair in ECE (the University of Minnesota McKnight Presidential Chair). He is also the Director of the Digital Technology Center at the University of Minnesota.
His research interests focus on areas of communications, network science, statistical signal processing, machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence. In these areas he has extensive published work that includes more than 470 articles in leading journals (basically IEEE Transactions), more than 780 papers in prestigious conferences, 25 book chapters, two books, two research monographs and 34 international patents.
Professor Georgios Giannakis is an active member of the international scientific community and has offered his services from various positions (editorial boards of journals, organization of top conferences, positions in the IEEE Signal Processing Society and IEEE Communications Society, etc.).
His work has received great recognition from the international community as evidenced by the following data: More than 75000 references (Google Scholar), h-index 145, holder of one of the top awards of the IEEE, the “Fourier Technical Field Award” (2015 ), holder of the IEEE “Norbert Wiener Signal Processing Society Award” (2019), Member of the Academia Europaea (foreign member, 2020), Fellow Member of the National Academy of Inventors (2019), Fellow member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2020 ), nine Best Paper Awards in Transactions of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and the IEEE Communications Society (such as the prestigious G. Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications), seven Best Paper Awards in top regional conferences, Technical Achievement Award by the IEEE Signal Processing Society, Technical Achievement Award from the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP), European Assoc. for Signal Proc. (EURASIP) “Athanasios Papoulis Society Award” (2020), Young Faculty Teaching Award from the University of Minnesota, GW Taylor Award for Distinguished Research from the University of Minnesota, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Minnesota (since 2016), Fellow Member of the IEEE (since 1997), Fellow Member of EURASIP (since 2008), Honorary Doctor of the University of Patras, specifically of the Departments of Electrical Engineering & Computer Technology and Computer Engineering & Informatics, (2018), Honorary Doctor of the University Peloponnese, specifically of the Department of Informatics & Telecommunications, (2018), Professorships: Zhejiang U. (Distinguished); Fudan U. (Fellow); BIT (Advising), China.
Professor Sadis Matalon was born in Athens and after completing his general studies in Greece, he moved to the USA where he lives and works to this day. He is a Physicist (B. A. Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota – 1970; MS University of Minnesota, Minneapolis – 1973) and received his PhD in Physiology (PhD. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis – 1975).
Professor Matalon has an extremely high quality and rich research, teaching and administrative work and is one of the leading scientists in the field of infected lung injuries and their repair mechanisms, as well as lung clearance. He conducted pioneering studies to understand the pathogenetic mechanisms and treatment of acute respiratory failure syndrome (ARDS) in both adults and children. A key achievement of his team, on which his subsequent studies were based, was the emergence of the role of surfactants in the treatment of lung diseases such as ARDS. His most recent studies focus on the role of chlorine found in a variety of industrial and household products, in lung damage. His areas of expertise also include the study of influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus and COVID-19.
In addition to his scientific distinctions, Professor Matalon has succeeded in linking his scientific research in industry. He holds five international patents, and his findings have been used by the US Army to combat the effects of toxic gases on the lungs.
His scientific work has been published in the most prestigious journals of Medicine and has over 360 publications and 16,000 bibliographic references (H-index: 72).
Professor Matalon is an internationally acclaimed, charismatic scientist with a continuing and significant contribution to the advancement of the scientific field he serves. He maintains strong ties with Greece, which he visits frequently, and works closely with the Greek scientific community, actively contributing to the transfer of know-how.
He has received a number of scientific honors and awards, including: Dean’s Excellence Award for Research, University of Alabama School of Medicine (2021), George Kotzias Award, M.D. from the Hellenic Society of Physiology (2019), Honorary Doctor Hororis Causa, from the University of Thessaly (2010) and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2019), Distinguished Julius H. Comroe, Jr. Lecturer, American Physiological Society (2019), NIH Merritt Award (1997-2007), Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishment, American Thoracic Society (2002), Career Investigator Award, American Lung Association (1987-1992) and others.
