About the Author: Mara Meimaridi

Mara Meimaridi is an anthropologist, Ph.D. in the Medical School of the University of Athens.
She was born and bred in Kastella and in the first place she graduated from the department of Philosophy of the University of Athens. As a student, she took part in archaeological excavations in the cemeteries of the ancient city of Mycinae. At the same time, she graduated from the Hellenic Tourism Organization School for Guides. While completing her postgraduate studies in Archaeology in Paris (Sorbonne I), she set out for a new cycle of basic studies, turning towards Biology, Medicine and Anthropology in Jussieu, Ecole de Medecine de St.Peres, from where she graduated with compliments. Returning to Greece she took part in excavations in the ancient city of Avdira, studying the skeletal material. For many years she carried out a research on children's health in the "St Sophia" Hospital for Children, specializing in matters of physiology and growth. She was the main conductor of the research "National Standards for the Growth of Greek Children", the results of which are currently used in all the children's health pamphlets. She also carried out her thesis, under the title "Growth Characteristics of the Greek Children- a Radiological Examination Study" in the Radiology Laboratory of the University of Athens. Many of her studies and essays have been published in medical magazines. Lately, she is writing in magazines and newspapers, mainly about nutritional matters and is simultaneously studying in a new cycle of studies in Cosmology and Astrophysics in the UMD American University.
"The Witches of Smyrna" is her first work of literature.