Elisa E. Konofagou has been elected to the US-based independent advisory body the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
She joins her fellow Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) faculty members René Hen and Jennifer Manly as the new elects.
“We are delighted that Drs. Hen, Konofagou, and Manly have been elected to membership in the [NAM],” said Anil K. Rustgi, interim executive Vice President at VP&S/Columbia.
Shih-Fu Chang is the interim dean of Columbia Engineering and says Konofagou’s research and translation effort is “pioneering” and a “testament to the impact of cross-disciplinary collaboration between engineering and medicine”.
“These three researchers have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service, and their election to the academy reflects on the quality of scholarship that distinguishes VP&S.”
“Her work in therapeutic ultrasound is widely acknowledged as breaking new ground in medical practice and treatment,” Chang said.
The entire UEIL lab is so proud of our PI, Dr. Konofagou who's been elected to the National Academy of Medicine recognizing her leadership & innovation in #ultrasound imaging & therapeutics in medical practice & treatment. https://t.co/UMnfmlvntS@theNAMedicine@ColumbiaBME
— Konofagou Lab at Columbia University (@ColumbiaUEIL) October 18, 2021
Konofagou designs and develops ultrasound-based technologies that measure the mechanical and electrical properties of soft tissues in vivo.
Her team also develops ultrasound-based treatments such as breast tumor ablation, brain drug delivery, immunomodulation, and neuromodulation in the central and peripheral nervous systems; and pioneered ultrasound-based methods for noninvasive early detection of cardiovascular disease and tumors.
“Konofagou was elected to NAM for her leadership and innovation in ultrasound and other advanced imaging modalities and their application in the clinical management of significant health care problems such as cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer, through licensing to the major imaging companies,” Columbia University’s website reads.
This year’s Sydney Film Festival has stand-outs from Cannes and Venice Film Festival and showcases a wide range of Greek talent.
Greek director Christos Nikou and executive producer Cate Blanchett bring Aris Servetalis and Sofia Georgovasili together for a dystopian critique of “selfie culture” in Apples (2021).
Christos Nikou’s Apples represents a ‘weird’ new wave of Greek cinema (Supplied)
It follows a middle-aged man who finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities amid a worldwide pandemic of amnesia.
Apples is Greece’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2021 Academy Awards.
It premiered at Venice Film Festival and was part of the official selection at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2020.
Festival-goers will also see Angeliki Antoniou achieve a rare feat by directing and producing feature film Green Sea (2020).
Angeliki Antoniou on the set of Green Sea (Left: akrividis.gr) (Right: Supplied)
Green Sea (2020) made its debut at Kitzbühel Film Festival in August 2020.
It’s inspired by Evgenia Fakinou’s 1996 book To See The Sea (‘Για να δει τη θάλασσα’) about a woman who maintains her ability to cook despite living with amnesia.
It follows ‘Anna’ as she sets out with ‘Roula’ on a journey of self-discovery.
The festival will open on November 3 with co-director Ana Kokkinos’ Western Sydney-set drama Here Out West and close on November 14 with Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch.
The 68th Sydney Film Festival is set to run as re-scheduled between November 3 – 21.
George Peppou joins a growing list of young ‘greentrepreneurs’ running climate-conscious businesses.
Peppou and Tim Noakesmith are the co-founders of cell-based, lab-based meat company Vow Foods along with Tim Noakesmith.
Vow Foods makes its meat – from pork, chicken, kangaroo, alpaca, water buffalo – in a lab in Alexandria in Sydney using cells from animals in a bioreactor, called ‘cultured meat’.
Peppou says they take a more responsible approach to animal farming and meat production.
“There is a massive growing demand for meat around the world,” Mr. Peppou said.
“Cultured meat is grown in a production system fed by electricity. As long as we are using renewable electricity we can produce meat close to where people are eating it and which has a very small environmental footprint relative to animal agriculture.”
Vow Food founders Tim Noakesmith and George Peppou (Photo: Supplied to Daily Telegraph)
Co-founder Tim Noakesmith says it is a whole lot tastier and healthier.
“It will taste better, it will have better texture profiles and we are able to combine nutrition profiles that don’t exist in single animals alone,” Mr. Noakesmith.
As the duo work to lower the emissions profile on the agricultural sector, they say Australia needs to lift its climate change ambitions.
“We are facing one of the biggest crises to face the human race ever and there is a lack of action and urgency around the nation’s climate policy,” Mr. Noakesmith said.
Vow has raised $8 million in investments and plans to launch in Singapore next year.
Leading retailers are backing a new ‘re-commerce’ marketplace launched last week which encourages consumers to rent rather than buy goods.
Click Frenzy co-founder Peter Krideras and Retail Oasis founder Steve Kulmar created Releaseit for consumers to rent goods ranging from power tools to baby goods.
“Think of it as eBay for rental,” said Kulmar.
“The future of all discretionary retailing will include an increasing focus on the circular economy. We can’t continue to live excessively with a disposable mentality.”
Peter Krideras is the co-founder of Click Frenzy and Releaseit (Photo: 9Now)
Releaseit has already raised $3 million from investors, including Gresham managing director Hugo Dudley-Smith, online retail pioneer Paul Greenberg, Afterpay head of sales and retail partnerships Rachel Kelly, Camilla merchandise director Donna Player, Booktopia CEO Tony Nash, Cue Clothing Co’s Shane Lenton, St Frock founder Sandradee Makejev, and Oz Hair & Beauty cofounder Anthony Nappa.
Releaseit has signed up 30 established rental companies, including Glam Corner (designer clothing), Radio Rentals (appliances), Jucy (campervans), Carly (cars), GlamHub (designer handbags), Anyboats, and Luxury Properties.
Consumers use Releaseit to rent out items they already own to access a new revenue stream or rent goods on a short-term basis from other people nearby.
It aims to have more than 250 brands and more than 300,000 deals on the site by June 2022.
Releaseit charges rental companies a small fee when customers click through to their sites.
It acts as an intermediary between lenders and borrowers, holding and releasing deposits after taking a 20 percent commission.
Growing up in Sydney’s south western suburb of Casula, Harry and Mario Kapoulas were always surrounded by a loving Greek family who taught them the importance of hard work and good hospitality.
It’s no surprise then that once the Kapoulas family moved to the Sutherland Shire, the brothers took these lessons with them and opened a number of hospitality businesses in Cronulla, including HAM Cronulla, C.C. Babcoq, Good Catering and Rushi.
“I’ve always said that it’s in our blood to serve people and to make people happy with food and drink… [Greeks] are very proud people with everything, let alone our food, so I sort of find that subconsciously that is who we are. That’s what drives me and Mario,” Harry Kapoulas tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
(L) Mario and Harry Kapoulas. (R) Food from their bar C.C. Babcoq. Photos supplied.
To get to this level of drive and motivation, Harry and Mario had to first go on a journey of self-discovery. Harry actually studied architecture after high school and did a bit of travelling, while Mario went straight into the hospitality scene and worked at a few ‘reputable places’ in the city.
Eventually, the brothers ended up working at and running their uncle’s café, The Nuns’ Pool in South Cronulla, for about four years. The invaluable experience they gained there left them with no doubt that the hospitality industry was the right fit for them.
“That’s how HAM Cronulla began. HAM started because we wanted to obviously run our own ship but also, we found that Cronulla was lacking at the time with cafés, and especially European-style venues, to eat at,” Harry explains.
(L) HAM Cronulla. (R) Harry and Mario’s mum, Kitty, helps out in the kitchen at HAM Cronulla. Photos supplied.
HAM Cronulla is now one of the go-to cafes in the beachside suburb, with family-inspired Greek cuisine such as spanakopita, moussaka and pastitsio, along with a deli that offers gourmet cheeses and meats.
Family also continues to be at the core of HAM, with Harry and Mario’s mum, Kitty, working in the kitchen, and dad, Peter, sourcing fresh produce from the markets.
“We’ve always worked together in there… but mum does all her great things. We’ve always given her free rein in [the kitchen] to make what she does,” Harry says with a laugh.
Family continues to be at the core of HAM Cronulla.
“She has also now taught all the other cooks in the kitchen how to make all her traditional stuff… We don’t want it to just stop because mum’s not going to be there forever. We want to make sure we can continue making the awesome food that we make.”
For now though, it’s clear Kitty is still holding down the fort at HAM while her sons branch out and grow their Japanese-inspired café Rushi, which they run with business partner Lucy Brenton, and C.C. Babcoq, which is a rotisserie chicken shop and bar.
C.C. Babcoq is also set to get a second store in Bowral, which will open on October 25.
“C.C. Babcoq franchising is something we’re really interested in at the moment. We’ve just done one so we’re looking at selling more of those next year and seeing if people want to open them up in different areas,” Harry says.
Harry at C.C. Babcoq. Photos supplied.
It’s clear these businesses are a success so we just had to ask Harry whether he has any advice for others who also want to start a business.
“Don’t be scared. I think when you’re young is the best time to get involved in business because it takes so many years to learn everything and we’re both still learning every day. But to do it when you’re younger, you can afford to make mistakes you know, and really have a crack at it,” he concludes.
Wise words from one-half of a dynamic Greek Australian duo who are leaving their mark on the Cronulla food scene.
Parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents are able to enter states and territories that have reached 80 percent double dose vaccination targets.
They are now eligible to apply for a travel exemption to enter Australia from November 1.
Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews says the changes will reunite families long separated by the pandemic.
“For more than 18 months, many families with parents overseas have missed weddings, funerals, the birth of grandchildren…,” Minister Andrews said.
Andrews says now they can “once more hold their grandchildren, and gather in person to share life’s significant milestones.”
Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews says the changes will reunite families long separated by the COVID-19 pandemic (AAP)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday that parents are now considered under the travel rules to be immediate family.
“I know that will be very welcome news to Australians right across the country who were hoping to be reunited with their family members, their parents who are overseas,” he told reporters.
Parents are subject to eligibility requirements, including proof of vaccination.
Andrew Pippos’ ode to Greek diners has been shortlisted for the fiction prize in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.
Pippos drew on his own experience growing up in a family café to write a book that encapsulates the Greek migrant experience in Australia.
“It’s very common for a writer to write about the places that were important to them in their childhood. The cafés were the first community that I knew,” Pippos told the Greek Herald around the launch of the book last year.
He says Greek Australian cafés weren’t only “agents of assimilation” but “a mix of influences” in the mid-1900s.
“This was an assimilation era of Sydney, where people who came from Greece and started these cafés couldn’t cook Greek food because customers wouldn’t eat it,” he says.
“I’m not sure if you want to call that racism but it’s a kind of intolerance, and that permeates the book.”
Andrew Pippos’ Lucky’s was recently shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award
Pippos’ first book Lucky’s is one of 30 books to be nominated out of 470 entries.
Others on the shortlist are Jo Lennan (In the Time of Foxes), K.M. Kruimink (A Treacherous Country), Amanda Lohrey (The Labyrinth), and Evie Wyld (The Bass Rock).
The winner will receive $80,000 and shortlisted writers $5000.
Scott Morrison said the shortlists celebrate Australia’s talented literary sector.
“Australia’s storytellers and historians have provided a place for reflection as we have faced the ongoing challenges of the pandemic,” the Prime Minister said.
“That’s the power of our literature and the stories being told.”
Public hospital workers took to the streets on Thursday against mandatory coronavirus vaccinations and staff shortages.
About 500 workers marched past Parliament towards the health ministry in Athens chanting slogans and holding placards as part of a 24-hour strike.
Medical workers called for extra hazard pay entitlements.
Healthcare workers shout slogans during a rally organized by their unions outside the Health Ministry in Athens, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. Hundreds of Greek state hospital workers marched through central Athens as part of a 24-hour strike to protest staff shortages and compulsory coronavirus vaccinations. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Unions representing doctors, nurses, and other medical staff protested government plans they say exacerbate staff shortages and lead to long working hours.
They say while they support vaccinations, the suspension of unvaccinated health care workers only makes matters worse.
About 60% of Greece’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Greece is bracing for a fourth wave of COVID-19, with the country recording 3,279 cases and 38 deaths on Wednesday.
A major exhibition, Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes from the British Museum featuring iconic objects that have never toured the southern hemisphere, is coming to the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in Canberra in December 2021.
Museum curator, Dr Lily Withycombe, talks to The Greek Herald about the international show which celebrates sporting prowess in the ancient Olympic Games, highlights the theme of competition and explores its role as a force for innovation and excellence.
TGH: Dr Withycombe, you are curating the ‘Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes’ exhibition. What is happening behind the scenes in preparation for this unique exhibition?
So many things! The project team has been working on the development of this exhibition for about two years. While the content comes from the British Museum, we have to shape it to suit our audiences and fit our main gallery.
So, we have been editing the interpretive text and revising the exhibition order, with lots of meetings to workshop this process, as well as back and forth communications with colleagues at the British Museum. We think that we have ended up with the perfect layout.
We have also been working closely with a design team, Wendy Osmond Design, to create a stunning exhibition experience. The exhibition palette pivots on the iconic black and orange colour scheme of Attic vases and follows this spectrum throughout the show.
The design and layout are informed by the latest audience visitor research to ensure the comfort of our visitors, and we have endeavoured to maximise the space of the gallery, ensuring that all large objects are on open display on plinths, and that visitors have a sense of spaciousness upon entering.
There is a catalogue accompanying the exhibition, for which we commissioned two renowned Australasian Classicists, Professor Alastair Blanshard, from the University of Queensland, and Dr Diana Burton, from Victoria University of Wellington, to consider the reception of ancient Greece in Australia from the 18th century to the present in an additional essay and contextualise the exhibition within contemporary Australia and New Zealand.
Finally, we have also been producing a series of exhibition interactives, including audio tours, animations, the Osmeterion (where visitors can smell the different scents of ancient Greece), an ancient art colouring interactive, additional graphics like a map of the ancient Mediterranean and a timeline of key historical events, all designed to appeal to different audience types.
Some of these products have been collaborations with the Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, who will be hosting the exhibition in New Zealand later in 2022. And of course, every department in the Museum is busily working on their focus area – from digital, public programming, retail, to education. It’s going to be non-stop from here on in until the day that we open.
Let's look forward to 'Ancient Greeks' at the end of the year with a riddle.
What am I? Pheidippides first strode my route. But many repeat his path in the capital in April. I last for 26 miles (or 42 kilometres).
TGH: What are the elements that make this exhibition one not to be missed for Australian audiences?
There are many ways that we have transformed this international touring exhibition into a unique experience for Australian audiences. All our additional interpretation and programming, for example, has been designed specifically for this purpose.
But above all, there are two objects which cannot be missed. About two years ago, our director Dr Mathew Trinca requested the inclusion of two outstanding addition objects: the so-called ‘Apotheosis of Homer’ relief, which presents an exquisite example of Hellenistic relief marble carving signed by the sculptor Archelaos of Priene; and a black figure amphora by Ezekias, the most famous of all known Attic painters, which shows a powerful scene from the Iliad.
These two objects are very famous and moving examples of ancient Greek art. Although the Apotheosis relief had never before travelled to Australia, the Ezekias vase returns to Australia only for the second time since 1991. I won’t be the only person moved to tears when standing in front of these treasures.
But of course, every object has the potential to be an ‘unmissable moment’ for someone, as different objects will appeal to different people. For me, the statue carved from Parian marble featuring a demure young woman enfolded in luxurious fabric, revealing the virtuoso talents of marble sculptors who could create soft fabric from such hard materials, offers an outstanding example of ancient Greek skill that will never fail to astonish me. And everyone will be entranced by the array of Attic vases on display, as they present such fascinatingly graphic glimpses into life in the ancient world.
TGH: The exhibition showcases various objects including sculpture, armour, jewellery and pottery. Some of them have never been displayed before or travelled internationally. Does this make your curatorial work more challenging?
On the contrary, it makes it more exciting! The uniqueness of the objects helps to make this a truly special exhibition for our visitors, and more fun for us to curate as we need to research and understand them. One of the main challenges with this object list is the varying dimensions of the object list. Some statues are over life size at 2-metres in height, but other objects, like the items of gold and silver jewellery, are tiny.
For example, a blue gemstone exquisitely engraved with a figure of the goddess Nike setting up a trophy of armour gathered from the battlefield, is only 3cm in height and 2.5cm in width. Visitors may find it hard to appreciate the detail of this object with their eyes alone, and so our solution has been to intersperse large scale wall projections of the tiny objects throughout the exhibition, giving them maximum visibility.
TGH:Australia is home to the third biggest Greek diaspora in the world. Has your interaction with the community influenced your curation of this exhibition?
We have directly engaged with different Greek communities in Australia to ensure that this exhibition is delivered with integrity, and we are so grateful to the individuals and organisations who have helped us along the way.
Well-known ABC broadcaster Patricia Karvelas worked with us to voice the audio tour; and other Greek-Australians have advised on aspects of the exhibition’s development from programming to design to retail.
TGH: Why do you think it is of great importance for Australians to learn about the Greek culture?
Ancient Greece remains as a kind of blueprint for many aspects of society and culture in Australia – it echoes daily in our political and civic systems, architecture, language, and food. Ancient Greek literature is still studied in schools and universities across the country, its tragedies and comedies performed and reinterpreted for contemporary audiences.
The universal themes of love, betrayal, adventure, and religious and family obligation still resonate with us. Ancient Greek culture has been reimagined and reinterpreted over millennia, and each time it is given new relevancy.
In more recent times, Greek migration has helped to shape contemporary Australia. This is why our programming will include events dedicated to celebrating Greek culture, and our retail space will include products by Greek-Australian industries and makers, showcasing fashion, art and design.
TGH: How can younger Australians get involved in the program?
To ensure that the exhibition is engaging to younger Australians, we have designed a suite of dedicated interactives and programming just for them, including an audio tour voiced by children and an illustrated trail which will help guide young visitors on their own path through the show. We will supplement this in-person experience with online ‘Fun at Home’ activities.
During the school holidays, kids will be able to help us to build a Greek city in the National Museum’s Gandel Atrium, and we will run a series of workshops for children led by a local artist drawing on themes of the exhibition and some of its objects. Younger audiences are also likely to be particularly intrigued by the objects in the exhibition which reflect the lives of children in ancient Greece.
Exhibition dates:
National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 17 December 2021 to 1 May 2022
Auckland War Memorial Museum, 10 June 2022 to 16 October 2022
Maria Sakkari clinched the spot at the WTA Finals for the first time by reaching the quarterfinals at the Kremlin Cup on Thursday after advancing past Anna Kalinskaya.
Sakkari is the first Greek woman to qualify for the finals.
“It’s achieving one of my biggest goals this year, it’s very satisfying,” No. 3 seed Sakkari said.
“I’m very proud of myself and my team that we actually made it to the Finals for the first time, and for the first time in the history of Greece for a female tennis player.”
