Giannis Zacharakis is a research director at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (FORTH) in Greece, where he leads the Laboratory for Biophotonics and Molecular Imaging. Zacharakis has served as president and vice-president of the European Society for Molecular Imaging. His main focus is on developing key enabling technologies for imaging biological processes in living systems. Zacharakis is also the CEO of the precision photonics spin-off Kymatonics. The company recently secured a highly competitive €2.1M European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition Open grant, to advance the development and commercialization of their innovative wavefront-shaping objective lens. ### What skills do you use every day in your job? My everyday work involves both hard and soft skills, which are equally important for a successful career. At its core, my work is about asking questions and defining the path to discovery, through scientific knowledge and rigour.…