Dr. Michael G. Stamatakis had been on the staff of the Geology and Geoenvironment Department at the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens [NKUA] since 1980. He obtained his Ph.D. from NKUA in 1987 and was appointed Professor of In-dustrial Minerals in 2005. He is an Emeritus Pro-fessor at NKUA since September 2021. He speci-alizes in the characterization, economic geology and geochemistry of several industrial minerals and since 1988 has participated as a Coordinator/ Partner in more than 60 domestic and international R&D projects, mainly of the industrial sector. During 2009–2017 he was the Head/ Associate Head of the Department of Geology and Geoenvi-ronment, and during the last ten years he was the Head of the Scientific and Organizing Committee of 7 international conferences/ workshops/ training schools. Moreover, he has participated as a member of the organizing and scientific committees in more than 35 International Conferences in Greece and abroad and has been awarded three times from the Greek Academy of Sciences for his scientific research. He is aslo reviewer in many international journals.
Dr. Stamatakis is a consultant to Greek and foreign mining companies and his research has been mainly on industrial clays, cement raw materials, zeolites, diatomite, phosphates, volcanic tuffs, white carbonates, gypsum, trona and borates. Besides Greece, he has worked in several quarries and mines of industrial minerals and rocks mainly in Spain, Romania, Hungary, Cyprus, Canada, f. Yugoslavia, UK, Denmark, Turkey and Italy, having co-operation and joint research projects with geologists and engineers from these countries. The publication record of Dr. Stamatakis accounts of more than 250 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed international Journals and Conferences (>2100 citations, h-index 24).

Themed Lecture

Milos, the minerals island and its important asset: Bentonite

The island of Milos is an active mining site since the Antiquity. Exploitation began with the extraction of obsidian lumps and volcanic lavas and tuffs of specific type, that were used as millstones, sulphur and alum (alunite). Currently, the mining activity is focused on perlite and bentonite, even though some years ago, kaolin, silica, pozzolans and barite were also exploited. Milos bentonite is rather a specialty and not a commodity, as it has multifunctional properties, and therefore it is used in a wide range of industrial applications, such as foundry sand, drilling muds, lubricant oil, civil engineering structures (waterproofing and sealing, diaphragm wall construction, grouting, concrete workability additive, etc.), cat litter, iron ore pelletizing - Fe metallurgy in blast furnaces and also as “improver” for poor quality bentonites. The peculiar behavior of Milos bentonites can be attributed to the combination of various geological hydrogeological factors that occurred at the time of its formation from a glassy tuff precursor. Despite the continuous flourishing of tourism on the island, the mining activity does not face any threats to its existence, as both parties follow the specified regulations and environmental restrictions necessary to allow dual economic growth.