Ioannis Tsoukalas
Ioannis Tsoukalas () is a Greek politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for New Democracy; part of the European People's Party. Life Born and educated in Thessaloniki, where he also started his professional career, he graduated in physics in 1973 and obtained his PhD in 1975 from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He carried out postdoctoral research in the UK (University of Liverpool), France (Grenoble Institute of Technology), Germany (TU Braunschweig) and USA (MIT, Boston University), focusing on the field of solid state physics and technological materials. In 1984–1995 he held the position of professor at the department of physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, serving as its chairman in 1984–89. From this position he was responsible for the installation of the first LAN at the university campus, covering 26 buildings, in 1991–93. He was also the first chairman of the university's department of computer science in 1995–99, and continued teaching there until 2008. He also served as president of the ethics committee of the Aristotle University in 1995, president of the university's international relations committee (1997–1998) and as vice-president of the research committee (1999–2004). In addition, in 1998–2004 he held the post of secretary for informatics and new