Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos, has received another award, this time from the Hellenic National Committee for UNESCO and the Region of Western Greece.
The multi-award winning Greek Australian researcher was named among six other ‘Greek Women of the World’ during an award ceremony that took place at the Archaeological Museum of Patras in Greece on Wednesday night, held by the General Secretariat of Hellenism Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The award comes as recognition of her trailblazing work in research and immunology as a diaspora Hellene who has made Greece proud worldwide.
Professor Apostolopoulos has received almost 100 awards including the Premier’s Award for Medical Research, Young Australian of the Year (Vic), Greek Australian of the Year and Woman of the Year.
Listen to Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos’ interview with Neos Kosmos’ Fotis Kapetopoulos here.
She was named one of the most successful Greeks abroad by the prestigious Times magazine.
She was also the first to develop a method of immunotherapy to stimulate the immune system in the early 1990s, which today is used by hundreds of labs around the world. These studies led to pivotal human trials of vaccine formulations for breast and ovarian cancer in different stages, which attracted investment by pharmaceutical companies. It is worth mentioning that, one of the studies is now supported by long-term follow-up data showing that 25 years later those injected with the vaccine remain cancer free.
“What an amazing honour and recognition by Greece for Greek women of the diaspora,” Professor Apostolopoulos who accepted the award via Zoom wrote on Facebook.
Alongside Professor Apostolopoulos, Ekaterini Sofianou-Belefanti representing Egypt and Romania, Ioanna Zaharaki from Germany, Christina Tsardikou from Argentina, Marina Tsichlaki from Mozambique and Stella Kokoli from the US also received awards for their contributions.
