Biography
Athanassios (Thanos) Skodras
Professor Emeritus – Academic Ambassador for European University Cooperation
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Patras, Greece
Athanassios (Thanos) Skodras was Professor of Digital Systems in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Patras, Greece, until August 31, 2025. He is currently Professor Emeritus and serves additionally as the Academic Ambassador for European University Cooperation.
He has served as Director of the Digital Signal and Image Processing Lab of the ECE Department (2017–2025) and as Head of Computer Science and founder/director of the Digital Systems & Media Computing Lab at the School of Science and Technology of the Hellenic Open University (2002–2013). He was Dean (2010–2013) and Deputy Dean (2004–2006) of the School of Science and Technology, and a member of the University’s Research Committee (2004–2012). From 1986 to 2002, he held teaching and research positions at the Departments of Physics and Computer Engineering & Informatics of the University of Patras and at the Research Academic Computer Technology Institute. He was a Visiting Academic with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London during 1988–89, 1996–97, and autumn 2013.
He holds a Physics degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (1980), a Computer Engineering & Informatics degree as well as a Ph.D. degree in Electronics from the University of Patras, Greece (1986).
His research interests include hand gesture recognition using sEMG and ultrasound signals with deep learning, discrimination of photos from computer-generated images, ENF-based authentication of digital media, satellite image registration, image and video coding, brown adipose tissue quantification from thermal images, HDR image compression, NIR finger-vein authentication, digital watermarking, and fast transform algorithms. He has authored or co-authored over 170 publications in refereed journals and conference proceedings, 6 books, 6 book chapters, and holds 2 international patents filed by Ericsson, Sweden.
He is the co-recipient of the first place Chester Sall Award for the best paper in the 2000 IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, the co-recipient of the Best Student Paper Award for the track "Optics, Photonics and Digital Technologies for Multimedia Applications" (Conference Program Track 7723) of the 2010 SPIE Photonics Europe Conference, the recipient of the 2005 IEEE Circuits and Systems Chapter-of-the-Year Award, the recipient of the 2009 IEEE Region 8 Circuits and Systems Chapter-of-the-Year Award, and the recipient of the 2022 University of Patras Excellence in Teaching Award.
Professor Skodras has served as a TC member of the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, the Pattern Recognition and Associate/Area Editor for the Springer Journal of Real-Time Image Processing, the Elsevier Signal Processing Image Communication and the EURASIP Journal on Image and Video Processing, and as a reviewer for numerous journals and conferences. He has served as Chair of the IEEE Greece Section (2010-2015), Vice-Chair of the IEEE Greece Section (2005-2010) and Chair of the IAPR Greek Association of Image Processing and Digital Media (2006-2019). He also serves on the IEEE MGA Nominations & Appointments Committee and the IEEE Region 8 Awards & Recognition Subcommittee. Currently, he is on the Steering Committee of the International Conferences of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and the International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX) and has served as Chair / co-Chair / TPC Chair of DSP2025, DSP2023, IVMSP2022, QoMEX 2015, DSP2013, DSP2011, DSP2009, DSP2002 and DSP97.
Professor Skodras is a Chartered Engineer, Life Senior Member of the IEEE, a EURASIP member and a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.
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