Dean’s Message

Dear colleagues of the academic and administrative staff, dear researchers and students,

It is a great pleasure and a special honour to reach out to you today, as I assume my duties as the new Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Cyprus.

This new term of the deanship coincides with the 20-year anniversary of the admission of the first students to the first Faculty of Engineering of the country. A moment that inevitably prompts reflection on our journey, acknowledging and celebrating the remarkable achievements of our School. In the coming months, we look forward to the inauguration of our School's state-of-the-art iconic building facilities, which will redefine the campus skyline. These facilities will serve as a hub for modern learning, creative collaboration, cutting-edge research, and innovation.

Steered by our commitment to excellence and social responsibility, we are opening the doors of the Engineering School in 2024 by initiating a series of events addressed to diverse audiences. Concurrently, we are committed to initiatives that transfer our knowledge and expertise to address critical societal needs and contribute to professional practice.

My vision as the Dean of the School is clear:

• To promote the unique identity of the Engineering School of the University of Cyprus and to enhance its visibility.

As we continue to push the boundaries of knowledge and innovation, we must ensure that our successes are widely known and appreciated.  Sharing the inspiring stories of our academics, students, and alumni will pride in our community.

• To foster an environment that encourages creativity, passion for discovery and embraces diversity.

We strive for an open and collaborative space for research and innovation, enabling everyone—regardless of background or identity—to feel empowered and free to contribute to our collective success, making a tangible impact on society, both locally and internationally. The Dean's Office will strengthen your efforts as well as will support ideas and initiatives to flourish for the further enrichment of the Engineering School.

My warmest thanks could not be missing from this message, nor the expression of my sincere appreciation to the outgoing Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Charalambos D. Charalambous, whose interventions in the institutional bodies of our University, with vigour and persistence, were decisive, both for the future of our School and our University,  allowing the next term of the Deanship to be creative and consolidate the School. I also express my warm thanks to the outgoing Vice Dean, Associate Professor Loucas Louca, for his support in all the actions shaping the future of the School.

In closing, as we approach the new year, I extend my warmest wishes for a creative and, above all, peaceful year ahead. Peace is a precious commodity that requires our protection and promotion.

Therefore, I leave you as a message of peace, with the lyrics of the poem "I see what I want" by Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet and intellectual, who lived in between, literally and figuratively, the Palestinian and Jewish communities, promoting with empathy, peace;  his poetry was proposed by the then Israeli Minister of Education to be part of the high school student textbooks - after all other reasons did not allow it... :

"..I see what I want in peace ... right now I see a deer and grass and a stream of water ... and I close my eyes: this deer is asleep on my arm and the hunter asleep, too, near its sons, in a faraway place

I see what I want in war ... right now I see the arms of our ancestors squeezing a wellspring into green stone....

I see what I want in poetry: when poets died, we attended their funerals, buried them with flowers, returned safely to their poetry ...

now in the age of magazines, movies, and droning, we laugh--sprinkle a handful of soil on their poems, come home to find them at our door

I see at dawn what I want in the dawn ... right now I see nations looking for bread in other nations' bread

Bread is what unravels us from the silk of drowsiness, from the cotton of our dreams

Is it from a grain of wheat that the dawn of life shines ... and the dawn of war?

I see what I want in people: their desire for yearning, their reluctance to go to work,

their urgency to come home ....”

With my warmest regards,

Professor Marina Neophytou

Dean of the Faculty of Engineering