Dr. Panayotis N. Soucacos will give a lecture entitled Χαρτογραφία και Ιατρική “στον απόηχο του χρόνου και του χώρου”. Διδάγματα από την Ιστορία.
Evidence of the parallel pace and progress of Chartography and Medicine can be discerned from the prehistoric period up to modern times. Serving as mirrors and catalysts of their times, our attention is drawn to the Shaman – magician in the caves of Lascaux along with the elaborate figurative schemes on the stone walls, to Achilles Shield from the Homeric Period, to the mythologic map of the campaign of the Argonauts, the maps depicting the expenditions of Alexander the Great, medicine as it was practiced during the Hippocratic and Byzatine periods, and so much more. All of these serve as undisputable examples of the timeless progresion and extra-ordinary parallelism in the evolution of Chartography and Medicine throughout the ages and history.
Dr. Panayotis N. Soucacos served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Ioannina (1980-2002) and at the University of Athens (2002- 2008). In 2012 he was appointed the first President of the Board of Trustees of the University of Ioannina. Over the last 40 years he has been active in academic medicine, maintaining long-standing, international inter-university collaborations, establishing internationally renowned clinical units and spearheading the development of orthopaedic research laboratories including the “Orthopaedic Research and Education Center” (OREC) to foster post-graduate research. The bulk of Prof. Soucacos’ scholarly work has been aimed at the application of microsurgery for hand and upper extremity reconstruction. He is member of the Editorial Board of several distinguished International and Greek Orthopaedic Journals and has spoken extensively in all areas in orthopaedics throughout the world. He is an active member of numerous orthopaedic organizations, having served as president in several societies including the World Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery. Prof. Soucacos has made over 500 scientific contributions to the international scientific literature. In recognition of Prof. Soucacos’ scholarly impact in academic medicine, he has received several distinguished awards, including the Award for Academic Excellence by the President of the Greek Democracy in 1996, the Doctorus Honoris Causa from the University of Cluj in 2008, and the title of Honorary Professor from the University of Ioannina in 2012. For fostering remarkable growth in the field of Hand Surgery in the international arena, he was recognized as a Pioneer of Hand Surgery in 2013 by the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. Despite his busy role in Academic Medicine and stemming from a simple field trip of the medical school with his students, Prof. Soucacos has fostered a passion for cartography over the last 30 years, focusing Greece and the greater Mediterranean area, including historical and religious maps.