Yiannis Laouris: Difference between revisions

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   |acronym=Dr. Yiannis Laouris

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'''Yiannis Laouris''' is a social-, science-, and business entrepreneur. He is a medical doctor, a neurophysiologist, and a systems engineer, trained in Germany and the US. Laouris interrupted his academic career in the mid-90s to dedicate his life to working for a better world. Most of his social contributions were conducted through CYBER KIDS<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/CYBER_KIDS CYBER KIDS in Future World Pedia]</ref> and Future Worlds Center<ref>[http://www.futureworldscenter.org Future Worlds Center]</ref>,<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/Future_Worlds_Center Future Worlds Center in FWpedia]</ref>. CYBER KIDS was grounded on the vision that introducing advanced computer technology in the lives of a critical number of young children using an educationally relevant and socially responsible, peace-enhancing curriculum would allow them to “transcend” the socio-cultural, political, and educational limitations of their country and move the new generation a decade ahead<ref>[http://www.cyber-kids.net/index.php?title=CYBER_KIDS_Vision CYBER KIDS Vision]</ref>. Future Worlds Center Future was founded as an incubator of ideas, projects, organizations, and most importantly social entrepreneurs. It is grounded on the vision to ''consciously re-design humanity's futures'' envisioning a world based on values of freedom, equality, and justice, using complexity and systems science and harnessing the positives of the digital era.

Laouris is mostly known for his socially responsible work and scientific contributions in the fields of peace, sustainability, and democracy through the application of modern technology and the science of Structured Dialogic Design (SDD)<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/Dialogic_Design_Science Dialogic Design Science]</ref>. His team has implemented more than 100 SDD applications<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/Chronological_List_of_SDDPs_by_Future_Worlds_Center_and_Associates  SDDPs by Future_Worlds and Associates]</ref> in both social and technological domains. They have established the SDD as a key methodology within the Operations Research<ref>Laouris, Y., & Michaelides, M. (2018). Structured Democratic Dialogue: An application of a mathematical problem structuring method to facilitate reforms with local authorities in Cyprus. European Journal of Operational Research, 268(3), 918-931.</ref>,<ref>Laouris, Y., & Romm, N. R. (2021). Structured dialogical design as a problem structuring method illustrated in a Re-invent democracy project. European Journal of Operational Research.</ref>  and have developed most of the currently used tools that support the process<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/ISM_Software Review of ISM software]</ref>. He leads internationally the theory and application of the science of structured dialogic design and conducts research towards developing systems to enable scaling up participatory dialogic processes to engage asynchronously thousands of people in meaningful authentic dialogues, thus accelerating institutional and societal change. He promotes the application of broadband technologies and structured democratic dialogue as tools to bridge the digital-, economic-, educational- and inter-personal divides in our planet.

Laouris is one of the 12 authors of the ONLIFE Manifesto<ref>Floridi, L. (2015). The onlife manifesto: Being human in a hyperconnected era (p. 264). Springer Nature.</ref> developed on behalf of the European Commission's  Digital Futures Task Force<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/The_Onlife_Initiative Digital Futures Task Force]</ref>, and a key author of Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era Manifesto<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/Reinventing_Democracy_in_the_Digital_Era_(UNDEF) Project page: Cick on manifesto report below]</ref> funded by the UN Democracy Fund<ref>[https://projects.undemocracyfund.org Project 532]</ref>.

Laouris graduated the medical school of the University of Leipzig in Germany. His studies were supported by three parallel scholarships; one by the Government of Cyprus; a second for top grades, and a third for being among the top foreign students of his school year. He was awarded a PhD in Neurophysiology with summa cum laude by the Carl Ludwig Institute of Physiology (with Peter Schwartze) a few weeks before graduating the medical school. This achievement was publicized in many district and national German and Greek Cypriot newspapers as he was the first student to be awarded a PhD before graduation<ref>[https://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/Vitae/Yiannis_Laouris/Newspaper_coverage_of_the_Doctorate Media coverage of PhD award]</ref>. He continued his research in neurophysiology at the Georg-August University Göttingen with cyberneticists and systems physiologists Professors Hans Diedrich Henatsch and Uwe Windhorst. He was then invited by Douglas G. Stuart to join two departments at the University of Arizona, Neurophysiology (medical school) and  Robotics, Prosthetics, Motor Control Group (transdisciplinary). In the US, he also completed a Master's in Systems and Industrial Engineering.