The gold medal A.S. Popov was awarded to Professor Costas Varotsos, Dean of the School of Science of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), from the Popov Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at a ceremony held on Monday May 8, 2017. Former Rectors of NKUA Th. Pelegrinis, Professor of Philosophy, Th. Fortsakis, Professor of Administrative Law, and D.N. Asimakopoulos, Professor of Physics, Vice Rector Th. Sfikopoulos, Professor of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, as well as former Deputy Chairman of the Council of the University Ch. Papageorgiou, Professor of Statistics, Deans of Schools, Heads of Departments and many academic Professors attended the event.
Ferdenant A. Mkrtchyan, Professor of Complex Information Systems, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Chairman of the Cybernetic Section of the Popov Society, presented the medal to Professor Costas Varotsos, in the presence of the Head of the Section for Science and Technology of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Hellenic Republic.
It should be noted that in 1971 the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded the Popov’s gold medal to Martin Ryle and in 1999 to Zhores Alferov, both awarded with Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974 and 2000, respectively. Meanwhile, Professor Yury V. Gulyaev, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who was awarded with the Popov’s Society gold medal in 1995 and gave the final authorization for this award to Professor Costas Varotsos, is a prominent figure in the science of Physics.
The A.S. Popov gold medal was established in honour of Aleksandr Stepanovich Popov (1859-1905), who is known for the invention of radio (first wireless communication device) in his attempt to develop a lightning detector.
The transmission of electromagnetic radiation is of great importance in the subjects of Atmospheric Physics and Environment, which - for the past 30 years - has been studied by the research group of Professor Costas Varotsos. This research activity has been accompanied by the publication of eleven monographs-books of the well-known publishing house Springer and more than 250 research publications in international journals, such as Nature and Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, with plenty of references by other researchers.
