The Olympia Symposia started in 2014 and take place towards the end of May every year in Paralia Katerini’s, about 20km away from the world’s famous Mount Olympus. Paralia is a village which is part of the municipality of Katerini, a town in Central Macedonia, Greece, and capital of Pieria regional unit. It is located about 80km south of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city.
Following the Ancient Greek spirit of “Symposium” (meaning “to drink together”), the Olympia Symposia aim to gather world leading scientists to address the most recent results of the different topic covered each year. Each Symposium has a participation of more than 150 scientists from more than 25 institutions and 35 countries from around the world, thus making the small village of Paralia to play a central role in advancing world’s astrophysical research. Prior to each Symposium, a general public lecture (in Greek language) takes place in the same conference venue where the Symposium itself is held thus raising the public interest of Astrophysics at high levels.
The Olympian Symposium 2014 was attended by approximately 200 participants and it covered the topic of Star Formation in which astrophysicists discussed important observational and theoretical results of how stars and planets are formed. The public lecture entitled “The Antikythera Mechanism” was given by Professor John Seiradakis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and was attended by more than 350 citizens of Pieria regional unit.
The Olympian Symposium 2015 will take place from Monday 18 to Friday 22 May and is covering the topic of Cosmology and the Epoch of Reionization. The public lecture this year will be given by the Distinguished Professor and President of the Academy of Athens Dimitri Nanopoulos.