Vassilios Makios was born in Kavala, Greece. He received his electrical engineering degree (Dipl. Ing.) from the Technical University in Munich, Germany in 1962 and the Ph.D (Dr. Ing.) from the Max Planck Institute for Plasmaphysics and the Technical University in Munich in 1966.

From 1962-67 he was Research Associate in the Max Planck Institute for Plasmaphysics in Munich, where he was associated with microwave interaction studies on plasmas. He served as assistant professor 1967-70, associate professor 1970-73 and full professor 1973-77 in the Department of Electronics, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he was involved with teaching and research in microwave and optical communications, radar technology, remote sensing and CO2 laser development. From 1977 he is an honorary research professor of Carleton University. From 1976 he was a professor of engineering and director of the Laboratory of Electromagnetics in the electrical engineering Department of the University of Patras in Greece, where was is involved in teaching and research in microwave and optical communications, data communication networks, with emphasis on efficient hardware implementations and rapid prototyping. He was also involved in antenna research and computational electromagnetics for wireless communications systems and in photovoltaic systems’ research. The laboratory he directed actively participated in EU ACTS & ESPRIT R&D projects e.g. In 1986-87 he spent his sabbatical year at the R&D laboratories of SIEMENS in Munich. In the year 2000-01 he spent his sabbatical in the University of Berkeley, California and FOKUS, Berlin.

He has published over 140 papers and numerous patents in the above fields. He has participated in the organizing committees of numerous IEEE and European Conferences. He has received the silver medal (1984) and the golden medal (1999) of the German Electrical Engineering Society (VDE) and has also received the IEEE 2000 Chester Sall Award for the 2nd place Transaction Award Paper. He is a senior member of the IEEE, member of the Canadian Association of Physicists, the German Physical Society and the VDE, Professional Engineer of the Province of Ontario and the Greek Technical Chamber. He served as Dean of Engineering of the University of Patras from 1980-1982 and from 1997 - 2000. From 1992 to 2005 he served as the Vice president of the research committee of the University of Patras.

In 2003 he was appointed President of the Research Center Athena, a position he held until 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he was Vice President of the Research Center Athena. In 2006, he co-founded the Hellenic Technology Clusters Initiative - Corallia, and is up to date the Head of the Unit. He has been influential in the establishment of hi-tech companies in Greece and abroad, aiming to enhance innovation in certain areas where Greece can attain international acclaim, by bringing together all key innovation players in a sustainable ecosystem (SMEs, academia, R&D centers, government, suppliers, customers, financial institutions, VCs, etc). He plays an instrumental role in the design and implementation of interventions introduced by Corallia with a vision “to sustain a Greek environment with the right framework conditions to allow sciences, innovation and entrepreneurship to flourish again” and ultimate goal “to establish the brand Innovation Designed in Greece”.

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