The Academy of Athens, at its plenary meeting on February 2, 2023, elected Michael Cosmopoulos as Professor of Archeology at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. Louis of the USA, as a permanent member of the declared Chair of “Prehistoric Archeology (with an emphasis on the Bronze Age)” in the second class of Literature and Fine Arts.

Mr. Kosmopoulos was born in Athens in 1963. He studied archeology, history and classical studies at the Universities of Athens, the Sorbonne-Paris IV (DEUG-Lettres Modernes, 1982) and the University of Washington St. Louis. His academic career began in May 1989 when he was elected Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Manitoba, Canada. At the same university, he was elected Associate Professor in 1993 and Professor in 1997. In 2001, he was elected Professor of Archeology in the Distinguished Chair (“Entrusted Chair”) in the Department of Anthropology and Archeology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, USA, a position he has held to this day.

As a university lecturer, he taught Greek archeology, history and culture. For his teaching work, he has received teaching awards from the Universities of Manitoba and Missouri, as well as the Archaeological Institute of America Award for Excellence in Teaching Archeology.

Mr. Kosmopoulos is a systematic researcher with notable writing, excavation, university and social work. His writing and research covers most of the Bronze Age in the Hellenic realm (mainly the Mycenaean world, but also the Aegean), while his contribution to the problems of early historical time is also noteworthy. He took part in the excavations of many archaeological sites, mainly in Greece (Mycenae, Epidaurus, Ancient Corinth, Pylos, Ithaca), as well as outside Greece (Olbia Pontiki, Ukraine). From 1989 to 1995 he directed the surface survey at Oropos. In 1994 and 1995, he carried out stratigraphic excavations at the great sanctuary of Demeter and Kori at Eleusis, as part of the study and publication of materials from ancient excavations of the Archaeological Society of Athens. Since 1999 he has directed the important excavations of the Archaeological Society at Iklaine, Messinia, on an important Mycenaean site.

Mr. Kosmopoulos is regarded as one of the most international experts in the field of Mycenaean archaeology, and through his writings and excavations, he has made a significant contribution to a better knowledge of the Bronze Age in the Greek region. Also noteworthy are initiatives aimed at educating the general public and, in particular, familiarizing Americans with ancient and modern Greek culture.