George (Georgios) Lianis (Greek: Γεώργιος Λιάνης, 1926–2008) was a Greek scholar, activist, diplomat, and cabinet member of the first term of government of PASOK, in 1981–1985. As cabinet member responsible for higher education, he authored the 1982 university reform that introduced the departmental system as a replacement for the professorial chair system and that established graduate schools. Then in 1983-1985, as Greece’s first Minister of Research and Technology, he was instrumental in supporting the introduction of information technology and alternative energy, reorganizing the national research institutes, and establishing the system of centers of research innovation and excellence.