Georgios Lianis

George (Georgios) Lianis (Greek: Γεώργιος Λιάνης, 1926–2008) was a Greek scholar, activist, diplomat, and cabinet member of the first term of government of PASOK, in 1981–1985. As cabinet member responsible for higher education, he authored the 1982 university reform that introduced the departmental system as a replacement for the professorial chair system and that established graduate schools. Then in 1983-1985, as Greece’s first Minister of Research and Technology, he was instrumental in supporting the introduction of information technology and alternative energy, reorganizing the national research institutes, and establishing the system of centers of research innovation and excellence.

George Lianis Γεώργιος Λιάνης
George Lianis as Minister of Research and Technology
Deputy Minister of Education
In office 21 October 1981 – 5 July 1982
Minister of Research and Technology
In office 5 July 1982 – 5 June 1985
Preceded by	-
Personal details
Born	Georgios Lianis 20 May 1926 Naoussa, Greece
Died	4 January 2008 (aged 81)
Nationality	Greek
Political party	Panhellenic Socialist Movement
Alma mater	National Technical University of Athens Imperial College London
Profession	Academic Politician

Early life

Born in Naoussa, northern Greece, in 1926. During the Axis occupation, he was active in the youth resistance group EPON. In 1953 he graduated from the National Technical University of Athens with a degree in mechanical and electrical engineering. He received a PhD from Imperial College London in 1956 in mechanical engineering with a specialty in plasticity.

Patras and dictatorship years

He had moved to the USA where he was professor of aerospace engineering at Purdue University with more than 75 publications[1] in the fields of continuum thermodynamics and the relativistic physics of continuous media[2] During this time, he first addressed the question of higher education reform in Greece. In 1964 he was invited to help organize at Patras, Greece, a new university incorporating a departmental system to replace the more hierarchical chair system then in use.[3] This attempt at change ignited such overwhelming opposition, not only in the academy but also in the government itself, that any attempt at alteration was rejected.[4]

The pursuit of reform was put on hold by the military dictatorship of 1967-1974. During this time in exile Lianis worked against the dictatorship, first as a member and later as the general secretary of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (PAK) - North America. Upon the fall of the dictatorship he returned to Greece where he became professor in the chair of Mechanics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and head of PASOK - Thessaloniki.

Higher Education Reform of 1982

With the electoral victory of PASOK in 1981, Lianis joined the cabinet as Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Higher Education with the mission of enacting a substantial reform.

In 1982, Framework Law 1268/82 was passed. It established a departmental system in place of the traditional academic chair, created four levels of staff, and specified channels of promotion based on qualification exclusively.[5] Graduate Schools were established with their own deans and faculties, and university self-governance grew to encompass junior staff and student participation. The new framework served to broaden the academic and administrative base of the university, including a less hierarchical structure and more opportunity for meritocratic advancement.[6]

Ministry of Research and Technology

In July 1982 Lianis became Greece’s first Minister of Research and Technology.[7] Early priorities were support of (then nascent) information technology[8] and both an increase in the research budget[9] and, crucially, new methods allowing research funding decisions to be made outside the usual cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. The latter initiative was finally codified in Law 1514/1985.

A fundamental priority of the Ministry was to cooperate in the establishment of centers of research excellence, beginning with the Research Institutes of Crete and later encompassing many national research centers as the Foundation of Research and Technology (FORTH).[10]

At the level of the European Union, the July–December 1983 Greek presidency (during which Lianis oversaw the Council of Ministers of Research) bore fruit with the launch of ESPRIT, the first organization for pan-European information research.[11]

Later positions

After his term in the cabinet, Lianis became a member of Parliament on the honorary ticket of PASOK. He then served as Ambassador of Greece to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, and several other Asian-Pacific nations. He died in 2008, at the age of 81.

References

1. Grandt, A. F., W. A. Gustafson and L. T. Cargnino. One Small Step: The History of Aerospace Engineering at Purdue University. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1995, p.100.
2. See for example: Lianis, George. “The Formulation of Constitutive Equations in Continuum Relativistic Physics.” Nuovo Cimento B Series, Vol. 66, No. 2, pp. 239-259. April 1970.
3. Brousalis, E. “Structure and Function of the University of Patras.” To Vima [The Tribune], Sept. 3, 1966.
4. “Government Ridicules Itself Over the University of Patras.” To Vima [The Tribune], Sept 6, 1966.
5. Rokos, Dimitris. Νόμος Πλαίσιο 1268/82 για την Ανώτατη Παιδεία [Framework Law 1268/82 and Higher Education]. Editions Enallaktikes, 2003.
6. In the traditional chair system, without the intermediary positions of assistant and associate professor, even highly talented younger scholars found it difficult to advance. With only one professor in each discipline, promotion often had to depend on the retirement of the chair holder rather than on the qualifications for advancement of the younger scholar.
7. Stambolis, Costis. “Catching up to the Technological Revolution.” Greece’s Weekly in Business and Finance, January 22, 1983, pp. 20-23.
8. Gee, Jack. “Greece Leapfrogs Into Information Technology.” Computer Weekly, September 15, 1983.
9. Walgate, Robert. “Starting Almost From Scratch: Science in Greece.” Nature, Vol. 301, p. 363. February 3, 1983.
10. Kafatos, Fotis. “A High Technology Oasis in Crete.” Chronikos, 1991, pp. 109-110.
11. “Together Since 1957: The Rise of Research in the EU Policy Agenda.” CORDIS Focus Issue No. 279, pp. 1-4. June 2007.