Dr. Ilias Papathanassiou is a Professor of Speech and language Therapy, at the Department of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Patras and a Research Associate at the Voice and Swallowing Clinic of the 1st ENT Clinic of the Medical School of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens.
He has 25 years of experience in the area of rehabilitation voice, neurogenic communication and swallowing disorders. He was awarded hi PhD from the Institute of Neurology at the University of London and has done postdoctoral studies at the Department of Speech and Language Therapy at University of Queensland, Australia. Before going to Patras in 2002, he was head of the Speech and language Therapy Department of the Stroke Unit at the Homerton Hospital in London, and the Clinical Research Fellow at the Institute of Neurology, University of London, where he was part of the Neurolarygology Clinic. He has published books (Acquired Neurogenic Communication Diosrders, 2000; The Sciences of Aphasia, 2002; Aphasia and Related Neurogenic Communication Disorders, 2012, 2016), has published dozens of scientific articles and studies and has over a hundred international participations with presentations in an international session. He has been the main speaker in many international meetings and has organized the 11th International Aphasia Rehabilitation Conference in Milos in 2004 and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Aphasia in 2010 in Athens. Dr. Papathanassiou was the chair of the organizing committee of the 28th International Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, held in Athens in 2010. He is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journals Aphasiology, Communication Disorders Quarterly, Clinical Archives of Communication Disorders, ASHA perspectives SIG17, and has been responsible for the book reviews of the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders and Folia Phoniatrica et logopedica. Dr. Papathanasiou has received awards in both Great Britain and America. In 2008, the Royal College of Speech Therapists in Great Britain awarded him the honorary title of Fellow (the Highest Honorary Distinction for a Therapist in Great Britain), for his international contribution and recognition in the profession of Speech Therapy. In 2014, the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) was awarded the honorary title of Fellow (the Highest Award for Speech and Language Therapist in the USA) for its contribution to research, teaching and international organizations of the profession. Dr. Papathanasiou is the only active speech and language therapist worldwide who has been awarded these two distinctions.
He has many years of experience in hospitals in Great Britain and USA and is a member of many professional and research organizations. His research interests include voice disorders in the performing arts, evaluation and treatment of voice disorders, neurogenic voice, speech, language and swallowing disorders, neurosciences in speech and language rehabilitation, diagnosis and rehabilitation of voice disorders, communication and swallowing disorders after head and neck surgery and the organization and development of speech and language therapy services in the hospital.
