KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Marios Avraamides
Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Dr. Marios Avraamides is a Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Cyprus where he teaches courses on Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Memory, Attention, and Perception. He is also the Pillar Leader of Human Factors & Design at CYENS Centre of Excellence.
He has previously obtained a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and an MSc and a PhD degree in Cognitive/Experimental Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to returning to Cyprus, he has worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of California Santa Barbara (USA) and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Germany). His research focuses on the cognitive mechanisms that support memory, attention, and perception, using a variety of techniques including VR, Electrophysiology, and Neuroimaging. He has more than 20 years of experience in developing content for Virtual Reality.
His research has been funded by multiple research grants, including a prestigious starting grant from the European Research Council (ERC). He has participated in various international panels, including the ISCH domain of the European COST framework and the SH4 panel of the ERC competition.
Prof. Giuseppe Carrus
Department of Education Sciences, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy
Giuseppe Carrus has a PhD in Social Psychology. He is Full Professor at the Department of Education Sciences, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy. He is author of several scientific publications, including articles in peer-reviewed national and international journals, volumes and chapters in collective volumes. He took part and/or coordinated several nationally and internationally funded research projects, including the EU-funded projects “DIALOGUES” (H2020), “ENCHANT” (H2020), “ECHOES” (H2020), and “GLAMURS” (FP7). He is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology – Environmental Psychology.
Prof. Eirini Flouri
Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK
I received my PhD in psychology in 2000 from the University of Exeter, was a postdoctoral research fellow at Oxford in 2000-2004 and joined UCL Institute of Education as senior lecturer in 2005. I was promoted to reader in 2008 and professor in 2010. I am mainly interested in understanding the causes of children’s emotional and behavioural problems. Complementing my previous work on the role of family (parenting, parental mental illness and poverty) and the broader context (neighbourhood and school), my current research starts to explore the role of biological factors, such as inflammation, in the development of emotional and behavioural problems in childhood. My broader research agenda is to test theory driven mediated moderation models of the effect of cumulative contextual risk on child psychopathology, so as to be able to advance theory on how risk impacts on child development and on how resilience can be promoted.
Dr. Maria João Forjaz
National Center of Epidemiology, Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
Dr. Maria João Forjaz is a scientific researcher at the National Center of Epidemiology, Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III. She graduated from University of Lisbon and obtained her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from University of North Texas, USA, with a Fulbright scholarship. She participates actively in the training of junior researchers and medical residents in public health and preventive medicine. Her research interests include scale validation and health indicators, quality of life, ageing, impact of COVID-19, pandemic preparedness and behavioural and cultural insights. Dr. Forjaz is the author of more than 160 articles in peer-review journal and several books and book chapters. She is a group leader at the Spanish research network Research Network on Health services and Comorbidity (REDISSEC) and part of the Spanish focal point of the WHO initiative in Behavioural and Cultural Insights. Since September 2024, she is the elected president of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology.
Prof. Maria Karekla
Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Maria Karekla, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, peer-reviewed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy trainer, Professor at the University of Cyprus, and heads the “ACTHealthy: Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Medicine” laboratory. Her research focuses on areas of health promotion and the investigation of individual difference factors (especially psychological flexibility parameters) as they relate to the development and maintenance of various behavioural difficulties. She also examines the treatment of these difficulties utilizing process-based and Contextual Behavioral Science principles and innovative delivery methods (e.g., digital interventions, virtual reality) in line with precision and personalized medicine. This led to very successful digital interventions for which she received numerous local, European and international grants, and awards. She is appointed by the Cyprus Minister of Health to the National Strategic Planning Committee for Mental Health and the National Advisory Committee for Tobacco Control, and the Board on Medically Assisted Reproduction and previously in the National Bioethics Committee. She served as the convenor of the European Federation of Psychology Associations’ (EFPA) Psychology and Health committee and is a member of the e-health task force. She is the immediate past-President of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), from where she received the status of “Fellow” in 2019. In 2023 she became a fellow of the European Health Psychology Society and in 2021 by the Society of Behavioral Medicine; in 2018 she was nominated as Cyprus “Woman of the Year: Academic/Researcher category.” She has published more than 140 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 13 chapters in edited books, 3 books, 4 technical reports and numerous papers in scientific conference proceedings. Her first psychotherapeutic children’s story book was nominated for the 2017 National Literary Awards (category Children/Adolescents) and for her illustrations for the book. She is active in scientific journal editorial boards (e.g., Journal of Contextual Behavior Science, Cognitive Research and Therapy). Moreover, she is a TEDx speaker and she has been hosted and interviewed for her work by numerous podcasts, newspapers, TV and radio stations nationally and internationally.
