Nick Kylafis Lectureship

The “Nick Kylafis Lectureship” was established in 2019 in order to honor Nick Kylafis, Professor Emeritus at the Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Crete, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, for his 35 years of scientific contributions and leadership towards the founding and continuous improvement of the astrophysics group at the University of Crete and FORTH. This lifelong commitment has been instrumental in the international recognition of the research activities of the Crete astrophysics group, which led to the creation of the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH in 2018. Under the auspices of the Lectureship, one distinguished theoretical astrophysicist is invited annually at FORTH for a brief visit.

SunyaevThe inaugural 2019 “Nick Kylafis Lectureship” has been awarded to Prof. Dr. Rashid Sunyaev, Director Emeritus, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (Germany), "for his seminal contributions in the fields of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology". Prof. Sunyaev visited the Institute of Astrophysics on October 24 and 25, 2019. He gave a Physics Colloquium entitled "Two milestones in the life of the Universe: the last scattering surface and the black body photosphere of the Universe" [video], as well as the "Nick Kylafis Lecture" at FORTH entitled "Detecting very hot plasma in the clusters of galaxies" [video].

SlikThe 2020 "Nick Kylafis Lectureship” has been awarded to Prof. Joseph Silk, Professor of Physics at the Institut d'Αstrophysique de ParisUniversité Pierre et Marie Curie "for his seminal contributions in the fields of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology". Prof. Silk is also Professor Emeritus Oxford University and Homewood Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. Unfortunately because of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic the visit of Prof. Silk did not take place during 2020. Instead his lecture entitled "The Future of Cosmology" [video] was given virtually  on June 3, 2021 and he visited the Institute of Astrophysics in the summer of 2021.

SunyaevThe 2021 "Nick Kylafis Lectureship” has been awarded to Prof. Ewine van Dishoeck, Professor of Molecular astrophysics at Leiden University, The Netherlands "for her seminal contributions in the fields of theoretical astrophysics and astrochemistry". Prof. van Dischoek visited the Institute of Astrophysics on October 21 and 22, 2021. Her lecture took place on Friday October 22, 2021 at 14:00, it was entitled: "Building stars, planets and the ingredients for life in space" [video] and it was also streamed via ZOOM.

The 2022 "Nick Kylafis Lectureship” has been awarded to Prof. Françoise Combes, Chair of Galaxies and Cosmology at College de France and Astronomer, Classe Exceptionnelle, at Observatoire de Paris, France "for her seminal contributions in the field of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology". Prof. Combes visited the Institute of Astrophysics from October 5 to 7, 2022. Her lecture entitled "When black holes impact galaxies" [video] was delivered on Thursday October 6 2022 at 2pm and was also streamed via the web.

The 2023 "Nick Kylafis Lectureship” has been awarded to Prof. Steven Balbus, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University, UK, "for his seminal contributions in the field of theoretical astrophysics". Prof. Balbus visited the Institute of Astrophysics between 16-20 October 2023. His lecture entitled "Understanding black holes from stars destroyed by tidal forces" [video] was delivered on Thursday October 19 2023 at 2pm and was also streamed via the web.