In the mid-1990s, I had the extraordinary fortune of meeting the distinguished physicist and researcher Ionas Siotis, who proudly told me that he came from Karya.
Ionas brought to Tinos the first environmental program “Life ¨98” through our Agricultural Cooperative. Our cooperative was taken over by a responsible body vis-à-vis the EU for the implementation of the program in Tinos and Zagori of Ioannina, regarding the reuse of cultivation terraces.
I am able to assure that then, and for the first time in Tinos, among other things, the issues were included:
· Re-cultivation on the terraces of local plants and trees, beekeeping and aromatic plants and capers
· Highlighting, maintenance of the paths to promote walking tourism
· Construction of micro-dams to stop the flow of water in the gullies and enrich the underground aquifers
· Industrial or domestic processing of agricultural products
· Education through seminars on crops, construction of xerolithic walls, product processing, etc., some of which have now become a daily routine and have contributed the most to our island.
Since then and through this first acquaintance – our collaboration, we maintained friendship and mutual respect until his death a year ago.
For these reasons and in his memorial service, I considered it my duty to collect information about his life and write these lines which, if he wishes, your excellent newspaper “Voice of Karya” should publish.
Ionas, who passed away at the age of 80 in April 2023, was a charismatic, communicative, multifaceted man who, although he left behind a valuable scientific work and although he had an impressive professional career, was always discreet and humble. He always remained modest and worked as an equal with his collaborators, despite his scientific weight and his high administrative positions.
His CV:
· He was born in 1943 and was the youngest son of the metallurgical engineer Georgios Siotis and brother of Yagos Siotis (1931-1994, professor at the University of Geneva).
· got a degree in physical engineering from the Lausanne Polytechnic,
· PhD from Imperial College London in Particle Physics,
· was a visiting researcher at Rutgers University, New Jersey, Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, Chicago, and Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Hamburg.
· from 1972 to 1989 he was Lecturer in Physics at Imperial College
· from 1990 to 2011 he was Director of Research at the National Research Center for Natural Sciences “Demokritos”.
· served as chairman of the Board of Directors at the “Demokritos” EKEFE (1989-1993) and chairman of the Board of Directors. at the National Research Foundation (1999-2004).
· Created the innovative for the time “Technology Park” in “Democritos”
· He pioneered the “Nestor” program for the detection of neutrinos in the underwater area off Pylos,
· participated in the steering committee for the creation of the Astroparticle Physics European Coordination
· he was a member of the committee of the European Descartes scientific awards (2000-2007).
Ion Siotis, who could have had an even greater career abroad, returned to our country because he wanted to contribute to its development.
It is important that he was honored by France for his contribution to the strengthening of Greek-French relations in the scientific field and that he was an active citizen against the dictatorship.
He maintained a residence in Antiparos and for this reason he helped in its development, and contributed to the creation of the Paros – Antiparos Joint Venture.
Finally, he always had a great love for archaeometry, archeology and art.
Some facts about his pedigree:
Ionas was a descendant of Hatzigeorgakis Siotis (1776-1851) who was fortunate to be among the first commissioners of the Holy Foundation of Megalochari and pioneer of the construction of Her temple. As we know, he was a businessman from Istanbul, a member of the Philiki Etairia and was born in the village of Leventados in Karia Tinos.
Iona’s grandfather was the doctor Ioannis (Yagos) Siotis (1859 -1932) who first lived in Tinos, – where his family moved from Paris – and then in Constantinople. (The grandfather of Iona, Ioannis (Giagos) Siotis was the grandson of Hatzigeorgakis Siotis).
In fact, his grandfather, Ioannis (Giagos) Siotis, after the Asia Minor disaster, served as Minister of Ecclesiastical and Public Education in the Government of Sotiriou Krokidas and in the revolutionary Government of Stylianou Gonatas, from September 17, 1922 to April 1, 1923, when he resigned because he disagreed with the execution of the Six Primevals of Destruction.
In his short tenure, however, he sought and succeeded in having Greece adopt the Gregorian calendar (1923) as “political”, having remained the last European country with the old calendar.
Jonah, may your memory be eternal.
Manthos Villas
NB: Information taken from :΅
1. Wikipedia,
2. DAILY newspaper
3. KEFE DEMOKRITOS and
4. NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
