Thanos Giannakopoulos serves as Chief of the Information Management Section and head librarian of the Dag Hammarskj?ld Library at United Nations Headquarters in New York. With over 18 years in the UN system across Vienna, Brussels and New York, and a decade beyond the organization in scientific information, academia, and scholarly communications in Heidelberg, Athens, and London, he brings nearly three decades of expertise to his work.
In his current role, Thanos champions a transformative vision that reimagines the UN Library as a dynamic, accessible space for dialogue, debate, and knowledge exchange among diplomats, researchers, and communities worldwide. A hallmark of his tenure is the launch and evolution of the , a repository ensuring permanent access to the written record of the United Nations. This innovation received the 2021 Jus Gentium Research Award from the American Society of International Law, recognizing its impact on global research. In 2024 alone, the platform recorded over 120 million downloads, including machine-to-machine transactions, from more than 12,000 locations worldwide.
Since 2018, Thanos has conceptualized and led the UN Open Science & Open Scholarship Conference, bringing critical debates about the necessity to open the record of science to UN Headquarters. The 2023 instance of this conference attracted over 6,000 attendees, underscoring the global appetite for open science dialogue.
Thanos holds academic degrees with distinction in Information Science (BSc) and Communications & Mass Media Studies (MA) from universities in the UK. Beyond his professional work, he is a devoted bibliophile with a deep appreciation for literature, poetry, and a particular fondness for science fiction.