Keynote Lectures

FELASA is pleased to confirm the keynote speakers for this years’ congress in Athens.

The Origins of Zoology and Aristotle’s Biology

Stasinos Stavrianeas is Assοciate Professor (Hellenic Open University, School of Humanities). He studied at the Universities of Crete and Edinburgh and taught at the Universities of Edinburgh and Patras. His research focuses on ancient Greek science and philosophy, his interests ranging over philosophy and history of science, metaphysics, ethics and modern aesthetics. He is the author of a translation and commentary of Aristotle’s Parts of Animals and Aristotle’s Generation of Animals and he co-edited the volumes, Aristotle on How Animals Move: The de Incessu Animalium: Text, Translation, and Interpretative Essays (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and, Philosophy and Medicine in Ancient Greece: Methods and Problems (Crete University Press, 2023). He is also the Director of the Master’s program on Philosophy and the Arts (Hellenic Open University).

Is the Brain in the Goldilocks Zone?

Scientia Professor George Paxinos studied psychology at Berkeley, McGill and Yale and is now an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia and Scientia Professor at UNSW.

He identified 94 hitherto unknown regions in the brain of rats and humans and published 57 books on the brain and spinal cord of humans and experimental animals. His first book, The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates, is the most cited work in neuroscience. His Atlas of the Human Brain received the American Association of Publishers Award for Excellence in Publishing in Medical Science and the British Medical Association Illustrated Book Award. He was president of the Australian Neuroscience Society and of the IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience. After a 21 year effort, he published A River Divided, a novel with environmental issues are at its core, including the question of whether the brain is the right “size” for survival.

An Unexpected Journey – From Calving Cows to Championing Squid Welfare

He is a veterinary surgeon with over thirty years experience in practice, academia and government service.  He worked initially in a University teaching environment where he developed an interest and expertise in veterinary reproduction, and was Named Veterinary Surgeon under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act in UK.

Until 2010, he worked in the UK Home Office in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Inspectorate and advised the UK delegation during the Council negotiations on the revision of EU legislation on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (Directive 2010/63/EU). He also successfully co-ordinated the work at the Council of Europe to revise Appendix A to Convention ETS 123.

Since 2011, he has been working as a veterinary advisor, where his main role has been to provide technical support to the European Commission during the transposition of the new European Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

David Anderson is a Vice-President of Institute of Animal Technologists and Past President of Laboratory Animal Science Association.

For many years he was Veterinary Trustee for the UK Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, and in his spare time still enjoys golfing and curling.