Gregorios Skalkeas - Doctor, University Tutor
Gregorios Skalkeas was born on April 21st, 1928, in Areopolis, Laconia, where his father, Dionysios, worked as a philologist and high school teacher. His father came from the Chambers of Exo Mani, and his mother, Sofia, from Platsa of Exo Mani. He studied Medicine at the University of Athens, where he graduated in 1953 with an internship as a General Surgeon. He then retrained in Great Britain in Cardiac Surgery, as well as in the USA. Returning to Greece in 1964, he began teaching at the University of Athens as a lecturer, while in 1967, he was elected full professor. Also, during his university tenure, he was an Appointed Professor of Forensics and Urology.
In 1971, Gregorios Skalkeas founded the official Transplant Unit of Athens, where he performed the first kidney and then the first combined kidney and pancreas transplants. In 1974, he founded the first Laboratory of Experimental Surgery and Surgical Research in Greece, where approximately 200 doctoral theses have been prepared. He also founded the Greek Section of the European Health Club and the Medical Biological Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens.
Gregorios Skalkeas was a member of 47 Greek and International Scientific Societies and Colleges and a member of the Academy of Athens from 1989 until his death. In 1975, he was elected a Foreign Fellow of the Académie de Chirurgie and a New York Academy of Sciences member. In 1977, he was elected Clinical Professor at Ohio State University, USA. He was also awarded the title of Friend of the Democritus University of Thrace and an Honorary Doctorate of the School of Medicine of that University.
Gregorios Skalkeas became widely known in Greek public opinion as the doctor of the Prime Minister of Greece, Andreas Papandreou, at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Centre, during his four-month hospitalisation, from November 20th, 1995, to March 21st, 1996.
He authored four scientific books and published numerous scientific papers, most of them in the international press. Finally, his life’s work is the creation of the Medical Biological Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, in which he secured the resources for its construction, equipment, staffing and operation. The Foundation houses seven Research Centres and aims to promote Biomedical Research in Greece. Gregorios Skalkeas passed away on August 25th, 2018, at the age of 90.