Dr. Skourides began his tertiary education, as a Fulbright Scholar at Brandeis University (Boston, USA), where he graduated summa cum laude with highest honorsin Biochemistry. During his undergraduate studies, he worked under Dr R. Ren doing research on Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. He then went on to do his PhD at The Rockefeller University, under the supervision of Dr A. Brivanlou, investigating the molecular basis of morphogenetic movements in Xenopus and developing biocompatible Quantum Dots and imaging applications. At the same time he participated in the development of the Axiovision software and Axiocam camera system for Carl Zeiss, an international leader in manufacturing optical systems. In 2002, he co-authored a seminal paper, demonstrating the use of biocompatible Quantum Dots in a living organism for the first time. This work was published in Science and remains one of the most cited papers in the field. He graduated in June 2004 and was hired at the University of Cyprus as a Lecturer and head of laboratory in March 2005.

He was promoted to the position of Assistant Professor and later to Associate Professor, a position he currently holds. During this time, he established the first animal facility at UCY and the only Xenopus facility in Cyprus. He has also, using an infrastructure grant, established the first and only imaging facility to include a Multi Photon Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy System in Cyprus. Additionally, he has established a number of collaborations with academic institutions in Europe (Imperial College, MRC, ESPCI) and the US (MIT, Rockefeller, Brandeis), assembling a multidisciplinary group of esteemed collaborators. In the past few years, research from his group has been published in prestigious journals like Development, Nature Communications, Developmental Cell, Cell Reports and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. His publications have led to a total of 3357 citations, invitations for talks including keystone talks, memberships in editorial boards and review assignments from top journals in the life sciences, including Nature Protocols, The Journal of Cell Biology, Cell Reports and others. More importantly however, this work has been noted nationally and internationally. Dr. Skourides was recently selected by the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences of the University of Cyprus as the faculty member with the highest quality research output. In addition two recent articles from his group were selected and recommended by F1000Prime, a peer-nominated global 'Faculty', consisting of the world's leading scientists and clinicians, conducting a post-publication peer review of the biomedical literature.

Finally, the high calibre research performed by his group was acknowledged by the Nature Index, given that his group was responsible for 2 out of a total of 3.14 fractional count points (63%) attributed to Cyprus in the Life Sciences, in 2015 and 1 out of a total of 1.84 (54%) in 2016 and 2017. Overall Dr. Skourides has laid solid foundations and is conducting cutting edge research in Cyprus, advancing biological knowledge while at the same time exploring potential applications.