International Award to the Acropolis Museum and FORTH for the laser cleaning of CaryatidsThe Acropolis Museum and the Institute of Electronic Structure and Lasers (IESL) of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) have been awarded the biennial Keck Award by the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) for their common project regarding “Laser rejuvenation of Caryatids opens to the public at the Acropolis Museum: A link between ancient and modern Greece”. The award was given jointly to the team of the Acropolis Museum / the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas and for their contribution “towards the promotion of public understanding and appreciation of the accomplishments of the conservation profession”. The ceremony took place on Friday 14th of September 2012, at the closing session of the biennial IIC congress in Vienna, which attracted 350 delegates.

IMBB researchers uncover a universal and potent protective mechanism against neuronal necrosis.Research at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, published today in the premier international scientific journal Nature, reveals a novel molecular mechanism that strongly and generally defends against necrotic cell death triggered by extreme temperature and multiple other insults.

Best Paper Award at the RuleML'12 international conference to researchers of the Institute of Computer Science of FORTHThe paper entitled "A Production Rule-Based Framework for Causal and Epistemic Reasoning", presented by researchers of the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), received the Best Paper Award at the 6th International Symposium on Rules (RuleML'12, Montpellier, France, August 2012).

ERC Starting GrantPanayiota Poirazi, a researcher in the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) at the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), was recently awarded the prestigious Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) for her proposal entitled "Dissecting the role of dendrites in memory".