Professor Kyriazis Pitilakis graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and he made his PhD in Ecole Centrale Paris. He has more than twenty five years of intensive academic, research and professional experience in earthquake and geotechnical engineering.  Head of the Civil Engineering Department (1997-2001) and Chairman of the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology in Greece (2003-2006), he has coordinated and participated in many important research and engineering projects in Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Turkey, Japan, France, Spain, and few Balkan countries and he has been involved in many post earthquake evaluation programs. Coordinator and scientific responsible of numerous European research projects, namely “Euroseistest” (http://euroseis.civil.auth.gr), he has a long experience in European research activities Geotechnical earthquake engineering, site effects, microzonation studies, strong ground motion, vulnerability and risk assessment of civil engineering structures and aggregates (cities, historical centers hospitals and harbor facilities), lifeline earthquake engineering, soil dynamics and seismic design of foundations, earth structures and infrastructures are among his main fields of interest. Chairman of the forthcoming 4th International Conference in Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (www.4icege.org),  he is author of more than 220 scientific papers in journals, books and proceedings of congresses, invited lecturer in numerous congresses and workshops and reviewer of many important scientific journals as well as in research projects in Europe. He is member of the editorial advisory board in Springer, member of national and international societies of earthquake and geotechnical engineering and member of national and international committees for seismic standards. He is international expert in important European and International projects and evaluator of post earthquake actions of international organizations (CEB). Recently he has been nominated by the French Republic Chevalier des Palmes Academiques.