Pleionis: Greek space agency 'absolutely necessary' and should have happened 'years ago'

He noted, however, that this should be preceded by a wide-ranging consultation process between the various ministries involved, with a coordinating committee answerable to the prime minister undertaking to promote the project.
He also unveiled plans to make the Observatory even more open to society, through events that combined science and culture - including another visit by refugee children - while also developing new domestic and international research projects.
Among his complaints, Prof. Pleionis noted a need for state support in order to resolve a chronic shortage of specialised staff to cover the 24-hour shifts at the Geodynamic Institute monitoring earthquake activity, or the National Tsunami Centre, as well as a shortage of space at the existing facilities due to an ever-expanding range of activities.
He also noted that the Observatory's services were not fully exploitated by state services and other bodies while expressing support for the creation of spin-off companies by Observatory scientists in order to increase its revenues.
Pleionis said that the criticism levelled against the government for lowering standards at Greek universities were "excessive" and noted that "in matters of research and universities, this government has done very well." He appeared confident that Greek scientists will gradually start to return from abroad thanks to the initiatives of the education ministry.
Professor Pleionis has been a professor of Observational Astronomy at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) Physics Department since 2012. He carried out research for several years in Italy at the SISSA and ICTP centres and was a guest researcher at the INAOE research centre in Mexico from 2002-2015. He was also a researcher, director of research and deputy director of the Athens Observatory from 1995-2012 with more than 200 papers on astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology published in scientific journals.