Tzanakaki Georgina

Professor in Public Health Microbiology

Graduate from the University of London, UK (BSc in Microbiology) and the University of Edinburgh Medical School (UK) (PhD). Her academic and research training involves the Universities of Oxford & Edinburgh, (UK), Wurzburg (Germany), Public Health England (PHE) Pasteur Institute (France) and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Furthermore, her training at the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) includes biorisk and quality management, initial management and rapid assessment in emergency situations, techniques for risk assessment and outbreak investigations, propose public health recommendations, risk communication. Since 2003 she serves as a National Contact Point for Vaccine Preventable Diseases/ bacterial meningitis at the aforementioned European Institution and since , since 2012 she is a Scientific Supervisor for the European Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology/ Public Health Microbiology ( EPIET/EUPHEM) organized from ECDC.
Since 1989 she is actively involved on molecular diagnosis and typing of the microorganisms causing bacterial meningitis acting as a deputy Head (1994-2010) and Head (since 2010) of the Hellenic National Meningitis Reference Laboratory. Furthermore, since 2019 she is the Head of the Laboratory Surveillance for Infectious Diseases (LSID), Dept of Public Health Policy, University of West Attica.

The results of her research activities are presented in more than 100 scientific publications in international –mainly- high impact factor (IF)scientific journals, h-index (SCI) 26. She has participated with more than 200 scientific presentations in Greek and international conferences and granted with 7 – awards.
Her academic work involves the domain of Public Health Microbiology in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at National and European level.
She is an active member of the European Monitoring Group on Meningococci (EMGM) since it was founded (1993), convener of the carriage working group and Scientific Secretary (2012-2018), member of 4 Scientific Societies / Fora as Scientific Secretary (European Society for Meningococcal Disease (EMGM), Working Group for Public Health Microbiology (EWGPHM/ESCMID), Chair and vice Chair of ECDC / EUPHEM Forum, accredited reviewer for the European Commission research projects (HORIZON 2020 and RIA), and the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infect Diseases (ESCMID), member of the editorial board of 2 international scientific journals, reviewer in 29 international scientific journals, and a invited expert on the development
and implementation of new vaccines in her field.