Director: Prof. Dr Ann Brysbaert
Since 1 March 2022 Prof Dr Ann Brysbaert is the director of the Netherlands Institute at Athens. She studied Archaeology (MA, KULeuven), Conservation of Archaeological Materials (BSc. Honors, UCL, London), and Conservation and Analysis of Mural Paintings and Architectural Surfaces (ICCROM, Rome). While being in Athens for the coming years (80% of her time), she remains Professor in Ancient Technologies, Materials and Crafts at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University for 20% of her time (NL) where she returns yearly for teaching purposes. She holds the Leiden position since 2018, and was Reader at the same faculty from 2015 until 2017.
After she worked several years in the field and in museums both as archaeologist and as conservator of archaeological remains, she received her PhD at Glasgow University. Following this, she held several academic positions: at the University of Leicester, DIKEMES-CYA (Athens), Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Heidelberg University (Senior A. von Humboldt Research Fellow), Glasgow University (Lecturer Material Science in Archaeology), and, between 2013 and 2015, at Leiden University as Senior Marie Curie-Gerda Henkel Fellow.
Between 2015 and 2022, Ann Brysbaert was Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator project ‘SETinSTONE’, while she also was Director of Research in the Board of the Faculty of Archeology (2016-18).
Tel. 210-9210760
Deputy Director – Advisor on International Cooperation – Web Content: drs. Willem Ledeboer
Willem Ledeboer studied Eastern European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. As a student he went to Greece in 1992 in order to study the position of the Greek minority in the former Soviet-Union, the subject of his graduation in 1994. In 1996 he became General Secretary at what was then called “The Netherlands Archaeological School” and since 2010 he is the Deputy Director of the NIA.
In the Institute, he is also responsible for international cooperation and promotes the academic contacts between the Netherlands and Greece. He also actively contributes to the deepening, expansion and implementation of the OIA program in cognitive subjects beyond the traditional ones, such as in Jewish Studies or Modern History.
Tel. 210-9210778
Senior Administrator: Emmy Mestropian-Makri
Emmy Mestropian-Makri was born in Athens to a Greek father and a Dutch mother. She is married, a mother of two, Dimitris 33 and Arianna 31.
She studied at the Department of European Studies of the Hellenic Open University and at the present she is pursuing a Master on Applied Ethics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
She joined the NIA team in 2000, and is currently in charge of the overall administrative functions of the NIA, managing the hostel and actively contributing to the organization of the Institute’s activities.
Tel. 210-9210760
Scientific coordinator of Social and Political sciences: Dr Trifon Bampilis
Tryfon has received a PhD from the University of Leiden in the field of cultural anthropology, he has conducted post-doc research as a fellow of the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, he has received his MSc from the University of London (UCL), department of Social Anthropology, and for his first degree studied social anthropology and social policy at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. His research has focused on the historicized ethnography of Greece with a special emphasis on the Aegean islands and Athens and he has written several books and chapters on the effects of modernization in contemporary societies, material culture, consumption, food and drinking cultures, visual culture, nationalism and far right extremism.
His interests include anthropology of neoliberalism, modernity, popular culture, death and religion, Europe and South America. He has taught cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University of Bayreuth and he is the main organizer and facilitator of the NIA winter school Migration in the Margins of Europe, the NIA summer school Urgent Multimodal Ethnographies of Greece and the autumn school Multimodal Methodology in Archeology.
His historized anthropological monograph (Berghahn 2011, Oxford & New York) is a widely reviewed work while more recently is trying to connect his prior research to the heavy drinking Afro-Brazilian entities of Umbanda in Rio de Janeiro.
Assistant to the Director in the field of archaeology: Kalliopi Efkleidou
Kalliopi Efkleidou completed her undergraduate studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, her Ma studies at the Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati, OH, and her PhD research at the School of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Between 2016-2023, she held several postdoctoral positions at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with funding from the same university, the Mediterranean Archaeology Trust, the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014- 2020», and the “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation” (EPAnEK) 2014-2020 as member of the project “Smart-Eye. Development of α prototype for smart visualization of invisible antiquities (Project Code: Τ6ΥΒΠ-00023). She has also held adjunct teaching positions at the Demokrition University of Thrace (2017-2018), University of Crete (2019-2020) and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2021-2023). Her research is focused on Aegean Bronze Age archaeology, and she is a specialist in GIS-based spatial analysis, architectural and stratigraphical analysis, and mortuary archaeology.
At NIA, Kalliopi collaborates closely with the NIA Director in various aspects of the archaeological administration pertaining to the Institute’s daily working, and in support of the Director’s activities. Beyond this, she also works as a freelance archaeologist for the Ministry of Culture and as adjunct professor at the Tourist Guides School of the Ministry of Tourism.
Educational Advisor: Nicholas Karachalis
Nicholas Karachalis has been cooperating with the Institute as a scientific collaborator in various activities since 2009 (Tussen marmer en beton, Confronting the Classics, ΝWIB Summer University, etc.) He is Assistant Professor at the University of the Aegean and researcher/expert in the field of urban cultural and tourism strategies. Ηe has an extended experience in urban and regional development projects and EU projects such as URBACT, ESPON, Interreg, etc.. Before this he was affiliated as lecturer with Department of Planning and Regional Development of the University of Thessaly and as lecturer at the post-graduate programme in Cultural Management at the Greek Open University.
He has an extended teaching and training experience e.g. as Visiting Staff at the International Hellenic University for the module of Sustainable Tourism Planning, at the Open University of Cyprus for the module of Cultural Economics and Management, as an organisor of summer universities with Dutch Universities through his role as collaborator of the Netherlands Institute of Athens and as a trainer and seminar facilitator for various organisations (e.g. URBACT, ESPON, National Public Administration School in Greece, etc.) He holds a PhD from the Panteion University of Athens which focused on cultural and tourism quarters in cities, a Master in European Urban Cultures (Joint programme by the Free University of Brussels, the University of Tilburg, the Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Arts and Design of Helsinki) and a BA in Urban and Regional Development (Panteion University of Athens). In 2010 he completed a post-doctoral research in tourism impact measurement of urban festivals. He has an interest in analysing the trends and dynamics between culture, tourism and spatial development processes, using an interdisciplinary approach and perspective (drawing on cultural economics, place marketing and branding, sustainable tourism, mega events, etc.). He has collaborated to several research projects and studies related to regional and local development, marketing, cultural economics and tourism planning. Alongside with his academic research, he has worked as an advisor for public bodies (Municipalities, Regional Authorities, City Tourism Offices, etc.) on matters of policy, funding, tendering practices, entrepreneurship, change management etc. He has been working closely with URBACT secretariat as trainer, in relation to my role as validate Lead expert. Since 2018 he has been appointed as a REA evaluator by the European Commission for Horizon 2020 (Crafts and Heritage) proposals and MCF post-doc proposals in urban studies.
Currently he is coordinating a research project on the behalf of the University of the Aegean on Cultural Masterplans and Cultural Branding of cities and islands in Greece, funded by the Ministry of Culture. More information can be found here and here.
Accountant: Panagiotis Gasparatos
Panagiotis Gasparatos graduated from the TEI in Larissa in 1982 and holds a First Class Tax Accountant license and a member of the Greek Economic Chamber. He is married and is the father of three children. Since 2001, he has been working at the Institute and has been responsible for financial management, while providing logistical support for staff and building management.
Alongside his work at OIA, he and his daughter Anastasia head his own accounting office in Athens.
Tel. 210-9210771
Building Maintenance: Ioannis Makris
Ioannis studied Planning and Analysis of Computer Systems and obtained his MBA from the University of Wales. He attended a significant number of seminars in the areas of Sales, Business Management and Marketing. For 15 years he was a Branch Manager in retail chains of well-known brands.
For over 16 years, he worked as a consultant for Greek companies, and also as a Sales and Network Inspector in companies selling electrical appliances and companies manufacturing and selling furniture, positions in which he received several service and performance distinctions. At the OIA he offers his services in personnel, security and building management.
Tel. 210-9210771
Librarian: Sotiria Nikolou
Sotiria Nikolou holds a Bachelor degree from the Department of Library Science and Information Systems, Faculty of Management and Economics at the University of Applied Sciences of Athens. She previously worked in several libraries such as, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (National Library of Greece), academic libraries at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, municipal libraries in Attica and in other regions in Greece. Also, she has worked in companies specializing in Integrated Solutions for digital archiving, digitization and physical document management services.
She has been awarded with the Librarian Award for the year 2013 by the Greek Department of International Board on Books for Young People for her work at children’s library section. Throughout her working career, she has attended many educational seminars and conferences in the field of information systems and metadata. In 2019, she was assigned as a group leader in voluntary groups at the 85th World Library and Information Congress that was organized in Athens by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
In the Institute some of her main responsibilities are the managing and processing of the Library’s material according to international standards cataloguing rules (AACR2), indexing, and the classification is being based on a Dutch classification system. Also, she provides assistance to the patrons of the NIA’s Library and she is in charge of the cataloguing and classification of the byzantine-related publications that came to the NIA thanks to the generous donation of Prof. em. of the School of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Mr. S. Troianos. The collection is being catalogued based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) and the classification based on the international classification system Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC).
Tel. 210-9210777
Cleaning staff:
Galyna Yatsenko is the head of the cleaning staff and responsible for the cleanliness of the NIA premises.
Anna Pefani is married and has two children, Simos, 25 and Eva, 23. From 1993 until 2008 she worked as a flight attendant, at Virgin Atlantic and Hellas Jet, while for the next 5 years she was employed in the food industry. Since 1993 she runs, together with her husband, a family business in the field of handmade carpets and linen.
Guards and Security:
Since 2011, two guards are responsible for the safety of the Institute.
Giannis Dimopoulos worked initially at the Institute through a private security company. He speaks English and a little French.
Giannis Zervoudakis worked since 1996 in various private security companies before joining the NIA in 2009. He speaks English.
