The Research and Innovation Week is organized annually by the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF) within the EU H2020 Research and Innovation programme, to promote interest in research, innovation and science to people of all ages, and to promote research and innovation culture to our society.

The program includes a series of interactive events to be held in cooperation with a wide range of institutions, universities and research centers in all the cities of Cyprus. Activities include scientific meetings, movies, theater, sports activities, lectures in schools, educational workshops on research and technology, astronomy, photography contest, etc.

You can download the full and short versions of the Programme of Events.

This year, The  Cyprus Institute participates in the Research and Innovation Week with two presentations, one by Prof Jean Sciare and one given jointly by Assoc. Professors Sorin Hermon and Nikolas Bakirtzis. Please see below for details.

"H2020-TEAMING Eastern Mediterranean Middle East – Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre: Strategic Excellence in Research & Innovation"

Date:       Thursday 30 May 2019
Time:      16:00 - 17:00
Venue:    The Cyprus Institute – Guy Ourisson Building, Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Athalassa Campus
Speaker: Prof. Jean Sciare, Director of the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) at The Cyprus Institute

* The presentation will be in English

Live streaming of this lecture will be available on The Cyprus Institute’s YouTube Channel
Live streaming is facilitated by the CySTEM project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 667942.

Abstract

Cyprus is a central location of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, a region with a very high anthropogenic pressure (population of about 400 million) affected by dust storms, dryness, heat extremes and unparalleled air pollution. Air pollution, and more particularly particulate matter (PM), plays here a crucial role in regional climate (temperature, precipitation) and has also major adverse health effects. Approximately 400 premature deaths and 8,000 years of life lost per year are attributable to PM in Cyprus. This will have considerable environmental, economic and health impacts that need to be assessed in order to implement efficient national mitigation strategies.

Important efforts have been paid in the recent years by the Cyprus Institute to enhance the air quality monitoring capacities of Cyprus through the development of new facilities such as the “Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory”, the “Facility for Chemical Analyses”, and the upgrade of the “Unmanned System Research Laboratory”. Being part of international networks, these facilities provide new insights on the natural versus human-made sources of air pollution and on the local versus regional origin of this pollution. This presentation will provide a comprehensive summary of the most important scientific results obtained by these facilities. It will also highlight the CyI development strategy of air quality research activities in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region

About the Speaker

Prof. J. Sciare is the director of the Energy Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of the Cyprus Institute (CyI). His main expertise covers the experimental characterization of atmospheric aerosols; addressing issues related their impacts on air quality, health and climate. He has received a Ph-D in atmospheric chemistry and physics from Paris VII University in 2000 with a dissertation on the “Biogeochemical cycle of dimethylsulfide in the Austral Ocean”.

Following a post-doctoral position at the Max Planck of Chemistry in Mainz (Germany) in 2000-2001 on the measurement of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) in various environments, J. Sciare has obtained a full permanent position in CNRS end of 2001 at LSCE and became CNRS Research Director in 2013, leading an atmospheric chemistry group of 20 persons from mid-2012 to mid-2014. Since mid-2014, J. Sciare is a full-time professor at the Cyprus Institute.

J. Sciare is currently leading the development of several major CyI research infrastructure such as : 1) the Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory (CAO) for long term observations of key atmospheric pollutants in Cyprus at, 2) the Unmanned System Research Laboratory (USRL) for the development of an unparalleled fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles dedicated to atmospheric research studies, and 3) the Facility for Chemical Analyses (FCA) for the speciation of trace species in ambient gases and aerosols.

J. Sciare is (co-)author of more than 110 international refereed publications (H-index 34) and more than 150 presentations at international conferences devoted to atmospheric chemistry and physics.

Please note that the presentations described below are walk-in presentations where the facilities are open for visits during this time.
The presentations are not ‘scheduled’ and are available to anyone who wishes to visit at any point during the times noted below.

"Sciences and Technologies in Art Characterisation"

Date:        Friday 31 May 2019
Time:        09:30 - 13:00 & 15:00 - 17:00
Venue:     STARC Premises, The Cyprus Institute, Athalassa Campus
Speakers: Dr Sorin Hermon and Dr Nikolas Bakirtzis, Associate Professors at The Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center at The Cyprus Institute

* Presentations will be in English and Greek

Abstract

ARTE promotes the effective use of advanced sciences and technologies in the authentication, documentation, analysis, conservation and preservation of works of art, archaeological artifacts and sites and heritage assets. ARTE builds on the success of the ‘Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories’ at the Cyprus Institute that bring together a multi-disciplinary team of experts in art history, chemistry, physics, informatics and computer sciences to provide new knowledge in art history, archaeology and more broadly cultural heritage.

With an established research pipeline that has offered successes in the analysis of artworks by El Greco and Titian as well as ancient statues from Salamis, to name some key examples, ARTE holds tremendous potential for innovation in the broader fields of archaeology and Cultural Heritage. ARTE’s applied techniques are non-invasive, non-destructive, portable and deployable in the field, benefiting from a dedicated mobile laboratory. ARTE aims at defining methods for diagnostic protocols aimed at the characterization of materials and the preservation of works of art (paintings, icons, sculptures, frescoes etc.), archaeological objects and architectural structures (sites and buildings).

Such integrated investigations, lacking in Cyprus and the region, are crucial for the study, documentation, conservation and authentication of artworks and artifacts. Currently, there are no well-defined approaches for the characterization of such assets, based on a range of analytical and digital methods. ARTE addresses this gap, by providing established, reliable and cost-effective methods of investigation with robust results.

The potential target group are institutions holding, displaying, managing and protecting heritage assets. They are public authorities, such as Department of Antiquities, Cultural Tourism Organization, Art and Heritage museums, such as Leventis Municipality Museum, Leventis Art Gallery, Law enforcement bodies, such as border police, private art collectors or insurance companies involved in the transportation of such assets.

About the Speakers

Sorin leads the Digital Cultural Heritage research group at STARC, The Cyprus Institute (CyI), which focuses its scientific activities on two convergent fields: 3D approaches to the study of the past and big data for knowledge repositories. He is director of STARLAB, a mobile laboratory for Heritage Science, including instrumentation for non-invasive chemical-physical measurements, 3D documentation, technical imaging and remote sensing. The mobile lab provides scientific expertise to archaeological excavations in Cyprus and the region, art museums and heritage collections. A most recent achievement is the inclusion of STARLAB and its related scientific activities into E-RIHS, the European Research Infrastructure on Heritage Science, where CyI fulfill the role of a regional hub for the infrastructure. Sorin is a member of the Steering Committee of E-RIHS PP, the Preparatory Phase of E-RIHS.
Within this context, Sorin’s research focuses on developing workflows for art characterization based on the integration of non-invasive and non-destructive chemical – physical analyses with technical imaging and 3D surface documentation for answering specific art history questions and the consequent development of STARLAB’s relevant instrumentation capacities for research and innovation.
Sorin obtained competitive grants from various EU programs, most recent ones being EMAP, ARIADNE, E-RIHS PP and GRAVITATE. Sorin is author of one book, editor of several books and peer-reviewed conference proceedings and author of more than 60 scientific papers. He is currently supervising three PhD students and is regularly teaching courses in the Science and Technology in Archaeology doctoral program of the Cyprus Institute.

Nikolas Bakirtzis is Associate Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program in Science and Technology in Cultural Heritage at The Cyprus Institute. He studied Archaeology and Social Anthropology the Aristotle University of Thessalonike in Greece and received his PhD in Art and Architectural History from Princeton University. His research and publications concentrate on the material culture, the historic landscapes and the architectural heritage of the Early Christian, Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean.

He has been awarded a Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellowship, a Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities and has been a Resident Fellow at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations of Koc University in Istanbul (2005-2006) and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology (2006-2008). He was also Cass Gilbert Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Research Associate at the Center for World Heritage Sites of the University of Minnesota (2008-2009). In 2009, Dr. Bakirtzis was awarded a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant by the European Commission and joined STARC to direct the research project TIEM (Tracing Identity in the Eastern Mediterranean; A Digital Survey of Late Medieval Monuments in the Eastern Mediterranean Islands). In 2013 he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, and in the 2015 summer term he joined Columbia University’s Global Program in Istanbul as Visiting Faculty. In Spring 2016 he was Getty Guest Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

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