CURRENT NUSTRAPISTAS
Theo J. Mertzimekis, PhD is an Associate
Professor of Experimental Nuclear Physics at the Department of
Physics of the oldest University in Greece, the University of
Athens and an Academy of Athens Laureate in Experimental
Physics. Theo has a strong commitment in scientific
excellence, academic integrity, scientific communication and
public outreach, being a thrilled fan of Carl Sagan's scicomm
style. For a full profile visit his personal page at
[mertzimekis.gr].
Dr. Pavlos Koseoglou earned his PhD from
Technische Universität Darmstadt, where his research focused
on fast-timing lifetime measurements of neutron-rich nuclides,
and holds a degree in Physics from Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki. He is a nuclear physicist with extensive
expertise in experimental nuclear structure techniques. His
research experience includes in-beam measurements using
radioactive and stable beams, Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence
measurements and neutron activation measurements. He has
participated in numerous experiments at pioneering research
facilities worldwide, such as GSI/FAIR, RIKEN and HIγS. In
2024 he was awarded the Walter Benjamin DFG fellowship to
conduct research at the National and Kapodistrian National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens. The project focuses on the
"Evolution of deformation in neutron-rich Er and Yb isotopes"
[https://radium.phys.uoa.gr/Yber].
Ioannis (John) Madesis (Post Doc) was born in Athens
in 1986. He graduated from the School of Applied Mathematical and
Physical Sciences of the National Technical University of Athens. In
his diploma thesis "Optical study of the ferroelastic
Sb5O7I with the use of Raman spectroscopy" he
studied the temperature dependence of various vibrational modes of the
Sb5O7I ferroelastic crystal. He earned his M.Sc.
from the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Program "Microsystems and
Nanodevices", NTUA. In his master thesis, titled "First-Principles
computational study of the High-Temperature Super-Conductor
YBa2Cu3O7-x", he performed phonon
calculations for the respective HTSC, developed a set of scripts that
automates the calculation procedure, and also applied an innovative
method for the reduction of calculation time, with results up to 50%
reduction. For his PhD he worked ar APAPES project at the University
of Crete and the Tandem Laboratory of the Institute of Nuclear and
Particle Physics. There he developed a new, atomic-physics oriented
beamline from scratch, and perfomed high-resolution, state selective
Zero degree Auger Projectile Spectroscopy measurements, to explore the
non-statistical Single Electron Capture to pre-excited He-like ion
projectiles. He is currently working as a Post-Doctoral associate at
RAMONES EU project, developing novel instrumentation for in-situ
radioactivity monitoring in oceanic environments.
Margarita Efstathiou (MSc Candidate) is now a graduate
student at NKUA, having joined NuSTRAP early in her undergraduate years.
Margarita has worked on various research projects, most recently on advanced
gamma-ray spectroscopy of neutron-rich Yb isotopes.
Georgios Siltzovalis (PhD candidate)was born in Athens,
in 1991. He graduated from the Department of Physics at the University
of Patras, in 2016. One year before his graduation he completed an
internship at NCSR Demokritos under Senior Researcher Dr. G.
Apostolopoulos’s supervision on the construction and calibration of a
device for electrical characterization of materials at high temperatures.
In 2018 he completed the graduate program in Medical Physics – Radiation
Physics. His MSc thesis was based on calculations and measurements of
neutron fluence in the treatment room and along the maze of a 18 MV
medical linear accelerator, under supervision from Prof. J. Kalef-Ezra
(University of Ioannina) and Research Director I.E. Stamatelatos
(NCSR Demokritos). In 2021 he joined the NuSTRAP Group to initiate his
PhD on simulation and optimization of a novel spectrometer for in situ
radioactivity monitoring in oceanic environments. The above study will
be part of the H2020 EU FET RAMONES Project.
Polytimos Vasileiou (PhD candidate) graduated
from the Physics Department in 2018. He is fascinated by
nuclear physics and initially joined NuSTRAP in order to
research more on nuclear spectroscopy and related experimental
setups. Timos completed his MSc thesis on studies of radiative
proton-capture reactions in mid-weight nuclei. For his PhD he
has focused on the structure of neutron-rich nuclei in the Hf region.
Language credentials include C2 in English, C1 in
German and B2 in Spanish. Timos has good skills on Windows
enviroments, and basic knowledge of Linux enviroments, and C
and LaTeX programming languages. He is also a swimmer and
enjoys playing basketball in his spare time.
Foivos-Panagiotis Gelatsoras (MSc candidate) was born in 2000 in Corfu,
Greece. He is in his senior year of studies at the Physics department of the Univ. of Athens.
For his BSc thesis, Foivos is constructing a isotope map of urban Attica by carrying out
radioactivity measurements with high-resolution spectroscopy. Foivos speaks Greek (native),
English (Cambridge English B2) and basic German (B1 Goethe Zertifikat). He is a euphoniumist
of the famous Philharmonic Society of Corfu and enjoys playing basketball.
Andreas Lymperopoulos (BSc candidate) is a senior Physics student. His interests are related to the applications of nuclear fusion as a reaction mechanism for both energy production and astrophysics. For his thesis he carries out calculations of reaction cross sections between alpha particles and Mo isotopes. He speaks english fluently (C2), while in the past he has represented the Dept. of Physics in the International Physics Tournament (IPT).
Jason Klonarakis (BSc candidate) is a senior Physics student studying nuclear reactions of neutrons with transuranium elements using statistical nuclear theory. He has tutoring experience and speaks English (C2) and Spanish (B1).
Danae Nikou (BSc candidate) is a senior Physics student at NKUA working on her thesis regarding pathways of stellar nucleosynthesis of heavy elements. In particular the production rates of the (p,γ) reactions of Yb isotopes are studied using the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model. Danae is fluent in English and French with a basic knowledge of programming in Python.
Evgenia Karpouza (BSc candidate) was born in Larissa. She is working on mapping and assessing the radiological impact on the Thessalian plains after the destructive floods of 2023, using high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy. She has strong experience in STEM education (robotics and programming) and speaks Greek, Russian, English (C2) and French (B2).
Eleni Kapsokoli (BSc candidate) was born in 2002 in Athens. For her BSc thesis, Eleni is conducting measurements with the TIGER spectrometer, analyzing samples collected from various urban areas of Piraeus. Eleni speaks English and French.
Dimitris Papadopoulos (BSc candidate) was born in 2003 in Athens, Greece. He is interested in theoretical aspects of nuclear structure. For his BSc thesis, he is currently working on nuclear deformation and shape-phase transitions by using both theoretical and computational models.
Anna Violadi (BSc candidate) is interested in nuclear structure and is currently analyzing data from the ROSPHERE array for her undergraduate thesis, focusing on Te and Yb isotopes using high-resoution γ-ray spectroscopy.
Konstantinos Topalis (BSc candidate) is interested in nuclear structure studies using advanced gamma-ray spectroscopy. Konstantinos is currently working on his thesis focusing on spectroscopic properties of Te and W isotopes. He is also proficient in English (C2) and German (C1).