Alexandros Papandreou is the President of the Organizing Committee of the event, Vice President of MENSA Greece and the Head of the Gifted Children section of MENSA. He is an Electrical & Computer Engineer and a fellow PhD candidate at NCSR Demokritos in the artificial intelligence lab. He is also the founder and coordinator of the Social Intervention Group (SIG).
Alexandros speaks 4 foreign languages and he is playing many musical instruments. He deals with the guidance of children and parents’ support; while his interests are algorithms, philosophy, physics, writing books, travelling and film direction. He has been published in scientific journals; he has lectured at international conferences and has published dozens of articles. He also maintains a personal blog.
Ioannis Tyrlis is a secondary school teacher and an active member of the Greek Mathematical Society since 1983. He has served as General Secretary of the Mathematical Society for twelve years, Vice President of the Competitions Committee, director of the “EUCLID A”, “EUCLID B”, “EUCLID C”, “Mathematical Review” and “ASTROLAVOS” periodical publications, member of the Committee for the Discussion and Resolving of Issues pertaining to the General Examinations, member of the Organizing Committee of the Panhellenic Conference on Mathematical Education of the Greek Mathematical Society, member of the Organizing Committee for the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad, as well as member of the Problem Selection Committee of the 2nd Balkan Mathematical Olympiad for Juniors.
His literary work includes publications in the EUCLID B and EUCLID C magazines, his work has been presented at scientific conferences, and he has also participated in a team which co authored 4 books.
He graduated from the Department of Mathematics of the University of Athens. He has completed post graduate studies in the Teaching and Methodology of Mathematics, and is a candidate PhD at the Department of Primary Education at the University of Athens. He is also a member of the organizing committee of this Conference.
Dr. Athanasopoulou is a teacher in secondary school education at Socrates Academy Charter School in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she teaches mathematics, in Greek, to children who have been certified as gifted, she is also employed as a part time tertiary education teacher at the UNC in Charlotte, North Carolina.
She graduated from the Mathematics Department of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and has completed postgraduate studies in Secondary Education Mathematics at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, where she prepared her PhD thesis.
Dr. Athanasopoulou has been working as a teacher in private and public secondary and tertiary education from 1984 to date and she is a member of the organizing committee of this Conference.
Eirini Kamaratou – Giallousi is an author of 42 children’s books and of a novel for adults; member of Mensa; member of the Greek Society for the Advancement of the Education of Creative / Gifted / Talented Children and Adolescents of the University of Athens; member of the Society of Greek Writers.
Through her books she tries to simplify concepts encountered by children through the use of myth. Several of her works have been adapted for the theatre by many schools and have won awards. She is also a member of the organizing committee of this Conference.
Her book “The smartest dumb kid” refers to the special needs of a gifted child.
Ioanna Katsavria is a graduate of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (in Early Childhood Education), is currently completing a Master of Science in Strategic Human Resource Management at ALBA Graduate Business School and has completed coursework in Mind, Brain, Health & Education at Harvard University Extension School. She has conducted research on the career preferences and competencies of Gifted and Talented Adolescents at ALBA and she has previously collaborated with Professor Brenda Romanoff (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) in establishing programs for gifted and talented children in the United States.
Ioanna has been working with Gifted and Talented Children, Adolescents and Youth for the past decade, firstly in Greece and then in two charter schools in the Unites States: The Socrates Academy (Charlotte, NC) and Archimedean Academy (Miami, FL). Simultaneously she has been working as a volunteer advisor for MENSA, providing specialist advice to the parents of Gifted and Talented Children in the field of education and social & emotional support. More recently she has been working in the field of talent identification and management for the corporate sector in the Middle East, with specialist SHL psychometric certification and Hay Group job evaluation certification.
Dimitra Fourlemadi is an English language teacher, a graduate of the English Language and Literature faculty of the University of Athens. She undertook postgraduate studies (MSc) in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition at the University of Oxford.
She is a member of the Organizing Committee while her interest in the organization of this conference stems from her teaching experience in differentiated classrooms with students who are in the same class but have different needs, both at cognitive and emotional level. The gifted students need special treatment in order to develop cognitively and socially as much as possible.
Alexandros Stamatiadis is a student of Statistics at the University of Piraeus. He is a member of the Mensa and ISI-Society intelligence communities.
He is particularly interested in the mathematical study of objectivity in musical quality while he is also composing his first musical work. With a view to academic advancement, he plans to conduct psychometric and statistical research in neurology in future. He is also a member of the organizing committee of this Conference.
Ioanna Zerva is a student at the polytechnic department of the Democritus University of Thrace and is studying Environmental Engineering. She comes from Soufli and is involved in making handmade jewelry and clothes.
Her contribution to the organizing committee has been significant; her willingness to become involved in the event stemmed from her desire to see changes in the educational system and an increased awareness for the special needs arising from diverse conditions, especially in border areas.
Nikolas studied Mathematics at the University of Athens but has never practice it, since he has been mangling with the computers since 1990.
He is a member of Mensa, a father of four and an IT consultant, blogging from time to time his IT findings. He currently works as a Network Administrator of Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment of University of Thessaly and as an ERP consultant mainly for the manufacturing industry. He speaks four languages, he likes developing in Python and C# and building websites with WordPress, Bootstrap, HTML5 Boilerplate and LESS.
Nikolas provided the web hosting and he is the web developer of the website.
Eugenia Giallousi has studied fine arts at the University of Middlesex. She was awarded a scholarship to complete postgraduate studies in graphic design on the subject of advertising. She is professionally involved in book illustration as well as painting. He has also worked with art installations.
Her contribution to the MENSA Conference for Gifted Children has been the creative design of the poster, the flyer, and the graphics on the homepage of the conference web site.
eugeniagiallousi@yahoo.com
Maria Linardopoulou is an Architect Engineer and she has been working as an Architect Supervisor for three years in Costa Navarino Hotels construction. In addition she is involved in logo and graphics design as well as in the design of websites. Her contribution to the design of this website was decisive, while she did the finallization of the poster and the flyer of the Conference.
Gregory Vardarinos graduated sum cum laude in 2006 from New York College with a BSc in Film & TV Studies. In 2009 he completed his MA in Film Directing in Edinburgh College of Art – University of Edinburgh under a merit scholarship from the Public Benefit Foundation “Alexander S. Onassis”. Currently he works as a freelance director and producer of corporate videos and documentaries. His interests include solving puzzles, Spanish culture and classical ballet. Gregory directed the video trailer of the event.
Anastasia Bartzoulianou studied Journalism and Mass Media in Aristotle University, in Thessaloniki, Greece, and has a Master’s Degree in Film Studies from the UCD University in Dublin, Ireland. She has worked in New York College Thessaloniki as a screenwriting instructor and has participated in various big and small film projects as a screenwriter. She has been writing for free press magazines such as Libre, Screw and FAGazine since 2006, while she was the screenwriter of the video trailer of the event.
Christodoulos Kokolios is a graduate student at the School of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy of the National Technical University in Athens. He speaks three languages fluently and he has extensive knowledge on computers and especially in programs related to creating and recording music. He has a special love for music, particularly for composing music for piano, but has also written several contemporary style songs. He is an excellent piano player and a very good electric guitar player. He hasn’t been involved in music professionally yet, but he has written music, with great success, for a theatrical play and he has composed the music of the events radio spot. Another area he is involved in is mathematics; in fact, some of the exercises he has created have been published in the Mathematical Society’s Euclid Journal. He is currently writing a novel in English which he wants to promote directly abroad, where he intends to continue his studies.
You will have the pleasure to hear some of his compositions on the premises of the event.
Orfeas Plakas-Primikyrios is studying in the field of Music Technology and Acoustics. As a musician, he has been part of various projects of different genres he helped with the radio spot and the editing of the videos for the event and is currently playing with the band Wish Upon A Star.
Orfeas has worked in TV news production at ERT. He co-produces the web radio show “Beerateia” that is aired on Spam Radio, webradio of the department of Communication, Media and Culture of Panteion University.
Antonis Gadaras is a second year student at the General Lyceum of Moudania. His love for learning extends to every field and he has obtained degrees in foreign languages and music. He enjoys Math and Science, and every year, he takes part in math competitions; in 2010 he won a silver medal.
Antonis has always been a lover of poetry; inspired by the poem “Oblivion” by Mavilis, he began writing his own sonnets. In 2010, his first sonnet entitled “Winter Melancholy” received first prize in the National Student Poetry and Literature Contest organized by the Panhellenic Literary Society; in 2011, three of his poems entitled “Euphoria and Fecundity,” “Nightmare” and “Supplication” won him top commendation from the Publishers Association of Northern Greece poetry contest
In 2011, together with his school’s debating team, he ranked first in the Debating program of the Ministry of Education; this year, he ranked third on the 15 Best Speakers nationwide list.
Antonis believes in the values of friendship, selflessness and humanitarianism; he is very social and always willing to help other people; some of his sonnets will be exhibited on the premises of the event.
Nikos Katsis was born in 1998 and lives in Zefyri, an area well known for its particular conditions. He went to the 4th primary school of Zefyri, and now attends the International School of Athens.
When he was in the fourth grade he created a blog as part of the “kseblogare” competition (http://katsis.wordpress.com), which stood out as one of the most remarkable of the competition. For this blog, he won an award from the Municipality of Zefyri, and Kathimerini’s “K” magazine devoted an article to him.
In the fifth grade, together with Dimitris Neofotistos, he participated in the Pan-Hellenic Robotics Competition, where they took first place. The following year he represented Greece in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) in South Korea, in the primary school category.
In the sixth grade he was awarded prizes for his success in the Mathematical Olympiad by both the Mathematical Society and the municipality.
His interests are varied; he loves art and plays the violin (he has recently played a concerto for violin and piano at school); his other hobbies include painting and origami and other constructions. He likes puzzles and riddles (he solves Rubik’s cube in a record 45”). He also participates in sports.
Nikos intends to study electrical engineering, followed by post-graduate studies in bio engineer.
Nikoletta (Nicky) Stypidou was born in Athens on February 17 to parents who are both MENSA members; her giftedness has been evident since she was very little – in 2011, following in her parents’ footsteps, she passed the MENSA test. Although an excellent student in all subjects, she prefers math and science and artistic subjects. She speaks English and French, and her dream is to study in the Netherlands; her hobbies include photography, playing the guitar and reading, as well as dancing and making all kinds of things. Some of her photos will be exhibited on the premises of the event.
Panagiotis Chaldaios is a 16 year old student completing his high school studies at Moraitis private school in Athens where he has an academic scholarship. He is multilingual with an ability to speak English, German and Chinese in addition to his native Modern Greek. Panagiotis has a love for music and has been studying the violin since he was 4 years old. Today he is the youngest candidate in Greece for the practical Diploma in Violin Studies. He also plays the guitar. He is enrolled in the online Education Program for Gifted Children at Stanford University (U.S.A.) and has completed three courses in mathematics, two of them on scholarship. From the age of 6 he expressed the interest in martial arts, which is when he started training in Tae-Kwon-Do. He has acquired the black belt in both Tae-Kwon-Do and Tang-Soo-Do, along with several other achievements. Panagiotis has received achievement awards from the Mathematics Society of Greece and is currently preparing for the Hellenic Chemistry Society competitions (a full year younger than the other candidates). At Moraitis High School, he has been a member of the Photographic , Football , Basketball , Technological and Scientific Applications , Entrepreneurship and Chess Groups and he is the the head of the official photography team composed on purpose of all school events. Panagiotis is looking for an academic scholarship to study abroad, with his main career interests being chemistry & biology and/or engineering.
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