Professor Panagiotis Behrakis is a Pulmonologist-Intensivist, board-certified in three specialties—Pulmonary Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Critical Care Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the School of Medicine of Athens University, and two PHDs, from the School of Medicine of Athens University and the Department of Experimental Medicine of McGill University.
Beyond serving as the Director of the Institute of Public Health of The American College of Greece, Professor Behrakis is President of the Scientific Committee of European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention, member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), founder of “George D. Behrakis RESEARCH LAB” of the Hellenic Cancer Society and investigator at the Biomedical Research Foundation of Athens Academy and focal point of WHO (World Tobacco Organization) for Tobacco Control in Greece.
Former Associate Professor of respiratory physiology at the University of Athens, former Adjunct Associate Professor at Harvard University-School of Public Health and former President of European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention, Dr. Behrakis is considered an expert in tobacco control worldwide.
In the past, Prof. Behrakis has worked on National Health communication and Health promotion campaigns to curb smoking in Greece (Projects HEART I- HEART II and two ESPA grants). Moreover, he has served as principal investigator in several European projects such as: EUREST, DIRECT, PRESICE and TOB-G.
Currently, Professor Behrakis acts as the coordinator of the “Joint Action on Tobacco Control”, a European Commission project for the implementation of the Tobacco Products Directive in the European Union. Since 2019 he has held the position of the Leader of the Committee of Experts for Tobacco Control, aiming at the implementation of the smoking ban legislation in Greece. In 2020 he was assigned Leader of the Committee for Heavy and Health-hazardous Occupations, pertained to the Ministry of Occupation.
Professor Behrakis is the author of more than 150 full scientific papers published in international journals, with 4000 citations.