Nektarios Tavernarakis is Professor of Molecular Systems Biology at the Medical School of the University of Crete, in Heraklion, Greece, and Research Director at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), where he is heading the Neurogenetics and Ageing laboratory. He is serving as President of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC).He has served as President of the Board of Directors of FORTH, President of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Governing Board, Vice President of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC), and Director of IMBB. He is also the Founder and first Director of the Graduate Program on BioInformatics at the University of Crete.

He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA), Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc) and the Academy of Athens.

He earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Crete, and trained as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. His work focuses on the molecular mechanisms of necrotic cell death and neurodegeneration, the interplay between cellular metabolism and ageing, the mechanisms of sensory transduction and integration by the nervous system, and the development of novel genetic tools for biomedical research.

He has received several notable scientific prizes, including two ERC Advanced Investigator Grants, and an innovation-supporting ERC Proof of Concept Grant. He is the recipient of the EMBO Young Investigator award, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel research award, and the Helmholtz International Fellow Award. He also received the Scientific Prize for Medicine and Biology, and the Excellence in Biomedical Sciences Award, of the Bodossaki Foundation, two of the most competitive scientific distinctions for Greeks, in Greece and abroad. In addition, he has received the BioMedical Research Award of the Academy of Athens, the Galien Scientific Research Award, the Empeirikeion Foundation Academic Excellence Prize, the FORTH Research Excellence award, and the International Human Frontier in Science Program Organization (HFSPO) long-term Postdoctoral Fellowship.