The Corresponding Member of Komvos was honoured in Rhodes by the Pan-Rhodian Society of America “Apollon”Yannis Yortsos, Chester Dolley Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California (USC) and a Corresponding Member of Komvos, was named “Rhodian of the Year 2026” by the Pan-Rhodian Society of America “Apollon”.The award was presented during the Society’s annual pre-convention in Monolithos, Rhodes. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering lists it among Yortsos’s significant honours for 2026, while the event in Rhodes highlighted his contributions to engineering, higher education and the Greek diaspora.The title “Rhodian of the Year” is awarded by the organised Rhodian diaspora to individuals with a distinguished record of achievement and service. For Yortsos, the honour also has a personal dimension, as he was born and raised in Rhodes and graduated from Venetokleio.From Rhodes to Caltech and USCYannis Yortsos’s journey began in Rhodes and continued at the National Technical University of Athens, where he graduated from the School of Chemical Engineering in 1973. He then pursued graduate and doctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), earning his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1979.He joined the USC faculty in the late 1970s and built a…