Granting of an Honorary Doctorate of the Agricultural University of Athens to the former Professor of the University of Ioannina, Mr Pantelis Zoiopoulos
On Friday, June 9 2023, at 12.00 p.m, the Granting Ceremony of an Honorary Doctorate of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition of the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences to the former Professor of the University of Ioannina, Mr. Pantelis Zoiopoulos, was held at the Ceremony Hall of the Agricultural University of Athens. At the short speech given by the Rector of the Agricultural University of Athens, Mr. Spyridon Kintzios, has highlighted the wealth of books written and edited by Mr. Zoiopoulos, in praise of his skillful use of written language.
Afterwards, the Dean of the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Mr. Eleftherios Drosinos, Professor, has featured the work and life of the honoured man. Mr. Pantelis Zoiopoulos was born in 1945 at Zografou in the region of Attica. He has studied at the Higher Agricultural School of Athens, wherein he has been specialized in Animal Husbandry at the fifth year of his studies and has graduated with a grade of the Qualitative Description and Distinction: “very good”. He has topped the competition run by the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) and in October 1974, he won a scholarship for three years for further continuing his studies onto a postgraduate degree level into the Animal Nutrition in Scotland, conducing to the award of a Master’s and a Doctoral Degree from the University of Aberdeen.
Mr. Zoiopoulos has been appointed as a committee member, in particular of 10 committees on a national level and 8 committees on an international level. With respect to the global committees in 1986, he was nominated by the European Zootechnical Association, as a representative of the Mediterranean countries, amongst the ten-member Committee in Zürich for the study of legal resources in Europe. Furthermore, he was appointed accordingly in 1986 in Brussels, regarding the maximum permissible limits of animal feed in radioactive cesium following the Chernobyl disaster, inasmuch in 1999, being a member of the Special Group of the Committee formulated for the study of the dioxin episode in Belgium.
He has elaborated 20 research works at international conferences, along with 18 relative ones nationally, including that presented at Edinburgh Research Station of Roslin Institute, wherein Dolly the cloned sheep has been formed. In 1999, he was elected as an Associate Professor of Zoology – Husbandry at the University of Ioannina and in 2008 as a Professor of Animal Nutrition and Feed Quality Control at the Department of Business Administration of Food and Agricultural Products of the University of Ioannina, from which he retired in 2010.
Consequently, the honoured guest, Mr. Pantelis Zoiopoulos, has thanked the Rectorate Authorities of the Agricultural University of Athens for the particular tribute paid to the granting of an Honorary Doctorate, laying emphasis on the strong bonds cultivated, throughout the years, between him and the Agricultural University of Athens. During his speech entitled: “The, beyond technical accessibilty, literary dimension to the personality of “the Old Teachers” of AUA (former A.G.S.A.) over the 100 years of its establishment and functioning (1920-2020)”, Mr. Zoiopoulos has described five “shining lights” of Agriculture in details, by a vivid demonstration, providing pieces of information and some extremely interesting material about the Professors as follows: Nikolaos Roussopoulos, Chrysos Evelpidis, Vasilios Ganosis, Ioannis Saregiannis and Ioannis Papadakis, all of them as University Professors, had been the first laying the foundation of Agriculture and Agronomy in Greece as scientific domains. The ceremony event has been concluded by some light finger food dishes as a gentle offer by the honoured himself.
