A Short History of the Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics
of the Academy of Athens
The Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics was established in 1959 initially as “Office for Research and Calculations”, to promote scientific research in Astronomy and Applied Mathematics and to perform calculations related to these topics. In 1966 it has been renamed “Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics”. Since then scientific research has been conducted in the following fields, which are also the current working areas:
- Dynamical Astronomy, Nonlinear phenomena and applications of Chaos Theory in Astronomy
- Galactic Dynamics and Galactic Morphology
- Solar Physics and Relations between Solar and Terrestrial Phenomena
- Magnetohydrodynamics
- Cosmology and Gravitation
- Mathematical Applications in Astronomy and Astrophysics
The first supervisor of the “Office for Research and Calculations”, and later of the “Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics”, was Academician Prof. I. Xanthakis, until his death on 10, July 1994. During the years 1994-1997 the Research Center was supervised by Academician Prof. N. Artemiadis. After 1997 the supervisor is Academician Prof. G. Contopoulos.
The founding law for our Center can be found here.
As directors have served in the past L. Mavridis (1960-1966), K. Macris (1971-1979), K. Poulakos (1981-2001), N. Voglis (2001-2007), V. Tritakis (2007), E. Dara (2008).
Other researchers who have worked in the past in the Research Center are:
I. Liritzis, V. Petropoulos and Th. Zachariadis.
A brief summary of the RCAAM activities and history has been published in 2022 by the Academy of Athens.