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T
he government reshuffle on 5 August
brought Dr George Demosthenous to the
Ministry of Education and Culture.
Dr Demosthenous was born in Pano Zodia in
1964. He obtained his Diploma of Mechani-
cal Engineering (Dipl.-Eng) and a Doctorate
Diploma (PhD) from the National Technical
University of Athens. Prior to his appoint-
ment as Minister of Education and Culture, Dr
Demosthenous was a Professor of Mechani-
cal Engineering at Frederick University and
Vice-Rector of the University, where he also
served as Chair of the Mechanical Engineering
Department. He is a member of the Technical
Chamber of Cyprus and other international sci-
entific societies and associations.
Professor Demosthenous is the President of the
Foundation for the Management of European
Lifelong Learning Programmes and a member
of the Cyprus Scientific Council. From 2006 to
2010 he was the representative of the Repub-
lic of Cyprus on the Committee of Materials,
Physic and Nanotechnologies to the COST EU
programme. He has also participated in various
scientific and organising committees at nation-
al and international conferences.
Dr Demosthenous’s research is largely devoted
to material processing and construction plan-
ning. He has participated as a project and scien-
tific coordinator in a number of research projects
funded by the Research Promotion Foundation
and the European Union. He has published nu-
merous articles in international scientific jour-
nals and has given papers at many international
conferences, in addition to co-authoring two sci-
entific books. He is married and has one son.
* * *
During the handover ceremony at the Ministry
of Education and Culture, Dr Demosthenous
told outgoing Minister Andreas Demetriou, in
his brief salutation, “I come from the academic
field but I am also an engineer – so we are go-
ing to work like engineers”. He thanked the
outgoing Minister, saying, “he (Mr Demetriou)
gave his soul, offered himself, and we are go-
ing to continue from now on”.
Professor Demosthenous said of his decision
to assume the post of the Minister of Education
and Culture:
I was very much concerned and I said to
myself that we are going to fight as we have
done in other eras, and that no one is redun-
dant. I call upon the parents to love their
children and give them their best; I call
upon the children to love themselves and
respect their teachers, so that we advance
our education; and I call on all the teachers
in our educational system first to love our
children, and to show respect to our iden-
tity, our language and our origins.
Mr Demetriou welcomed the new Minister,
wished him much success, and assured him
he will stand by the new Minister and the new
Cabinet. He also thanked the President of the
Republic:
…for the honour and the trust he bestowed
on me in the three-and-a-half years I served
in this position. I want to wish success and
the best of luck, first to the President and
the Cabinet, and then to the new Minister. I
also want to declare my support to the new
cabinet in every way…these are hard days
for our country and every one of us has the
George Demosthenous:
The New Minister of Education and Culture