Yiannis Laouris
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 early social contributions were conducted through CYBER KIDS[1] and Future Worlds Center[2],[3]. 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[4]. 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)[5]. His team has implemented more than 100 SDD applications[6] in both social and technological domains. They have established the SDD as a key methodology within the Operations Research[7],[8] and have developed most of the currently used tools that support the process[9]. 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[10] developed on behalf of the European Commission's Digital Futures Task Force[11], and a key author of Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era Manifesto[12] funded by the UN Democracy Fund[13].
Education
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[14]. 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.
Current and Previous Notable Posts
Laouris was one of the Founding Members of Future Worlds Center, where he now serves as CEO and Lead Scientist. He is also the Founder and CEO of various startup companies including GNOUS Labs Ltd. and Concertina Enterprises. He has previously founded CYBER KIDS and Ekkotek Ltd.. Laouris is also founding member of the Cyprus Society for Systemic Studies; member of Board of Institute for 21st Century Agoras; national representative in several COST Actions, Insafe, Inhope, EU Kids online, ECSO, Cybercrime Centre of Excellence, ECTEG – Europol, and member of Boards and/or partner in several high-tech companies.
Contributions in Peace and Conflict Resolution
In the nineties, Laouris was a founding member of the Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group[15] and Technology for peace[16],[17] [18] [19]initiative. His team envisioned, designed and implemented almost a dozen of peace projects in Cyprus with the most recent civil society dialogue project aiming to re-engage peacebuilders from both communities following the negative outcome of the Annan Plan[20] [21].Students from universities across the world conduct internships and complete Masters and PhD theses with his group in order to learn about the combined application of conflict resolution, structured dialogic design, and information technologies in the service of peace and positive social transformation. The work has been recognized in 2008 with the awarding of the first prize for social cohesion of the Cyprus civil society awards.
| Year | Description |
| 1992 | Medical Innovation Award, Arizona, USA For the development of Multimedia to teach neurophysiology to students of different disciplines. |
| 1992 | International Program Development Fund Award, Arizona Distinction for significant contribution in International collaborations (with Estern bloc). |
| 1996 | ISO 9001/2 for CYBER KIDS, London, UK Top company to achieve UK ISO registration. |
| 1995 | Silver Award, INPEX 95, Pittsburgh, USA Innovation Competition Fair with thousands of participants from all over the world. |
| 1996 | The Elected of the Year '96, Jerusalem, Israel Award for CYBER KIDS in Israel. |
| 1996 | Qualidat, Geneva, Switzerland Award for CYBER KIDS. |
| 2008 | First Award for innovation"' Nicosia, Cyprus. |
| 2008 | Civil Society Award, Cyprus First Award for Future Worlds Center for social innovation. |
| 2011 | Hellenic Society for Systems Studies Award Dinstinguised Greek Scientist with international caliber. |
| 2017 | Euro-Med Award for the Dialogue between Cultures Second place Anna Lindh Foundation. |
| 2017 | Global Education Innovation Award 2017 One of 12 awarded by GENE – Global Education Network Europe to Future Worlds Center for its innovative Map Your Meal project. |
Citations
- ↑ CYBER KIDS in Future World Pedia
- ↑ Future Worlds Center
- ↑ Future Worlds Center in FWpedia
- ↑ CYBER KIDS Vision
- ↑ Dialogic Design Science
- ↑ SDDPs by Future_Worlds and Associates
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Review of ISM software
- ↑ Floridi, L. (2015). The onlife manifesto: Being human in a hyperconnected era (p. 264). Springer Nature.
- ↑ Digital Futures Task Force
- ↑ Project page: Cick on manifesto report below
- ↑ Project 532
- ↑ Media coverage of PhD award
- ↑ Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group in Wikipedia
- ↑ Technology for peace in Wkipedia
- ↑ Laouris, Y. (2004). Information technology in the service of peace building. The case of Cyprus. World Futures, 60, 67–79.
- ↑ Laouris, Y. and Laouri, R. (2008). Can Information and mobile technologies serve close the economic, educational, digital and social gaps and accelerate development? World Futures, 64(4), 254-275.
- ↑ Laouris, Y., Laouri, R. and Christakis, A. (2008). Communication praxis for ethical accountability; The ethics of the tree of action. Syst Res Behav Sci 25(2), 331–348.
- ↑ Laouris, Y., Michaelides, M. Damdelen, M., Laouri, R., Beyatli, D., and Christakis, A. (2009). A systemic evaluation of the state of affairs following the negative outcome of the referendum in Cyprus using a structured design process. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 22, 45-75.
- ↑ Laouris, Y., Erel, A., Michaelides, M,. Damdelen, M., Taraszow, T., Dagli, I., Laouri, R. and Christakis, A. (2009). Exploring options for enhancement of social dialogue between the Turkish and Greek communities in Cyprus using the Structured Dialogic Design Process. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 22, 361–381.