NuSTRAP Alumni Network

NB. Profiles shown here are frozen in time

Graduate Students

Christos Themelis (MSc) has worked on characterizing radioactive materials from the decommissioned research nuclear reactor at NCSR "D" using in situ gamma spectroscopy. His work was directly supervised by Dr Ion Stamatelatos and Dr. Dora Vasilopoulou (INRASTES, NCSR "D").

Ioannis Sideris (MSc) joined our group to work on nuclear reactions from a theoretical point of view. For his MSc thesis, he has employed the Hauser-Feshbach theoretical theory to perform detailed calculations for radiative capture reactions relevant to superheavy nuclei production.

Ahmed Khaliel (MSc,PhD) (aka Makis) was born in Athens in 1988. He holds a BSc degree in Physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (class 2013) and has worked on Ginzberg-Landau model of phase transitions during his BSc thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Ch. Moustakidis. He joined NuSTRAP in 2015 aiming at studying astrophysical processes of p-nuclei, at medium masses. He received his MSc in 2016, and his PhD in 2020 focusing on experimental nuclear structure. Makis was the recipient of an academic excellence award from the Section of Nuclear and Particle Physics at UoA and was funded by a PhD scholarship from ELIDEK. He has moved to CEA Saclay, accepting a Post-Doc position.

Pavlos Tsavalas (BSc, MSc) joined the NuSTRAP group in 2013 as a senior Physics student. For his BSc thesis he has performed a series of RBS and NRA measurements on specially designed materials and thin films, working at the Tandem Lab of NCSR "Demokritos". As a graduate student at the Department of Nuclear & Particle Physics, Pavlos is collaborating with the Institute of Nuclear Technology of NCSR "Demokritos" to apply ion-beam techniques in studying next-generation materials for the plasma-confinemnt chamber of next-gen ITER fusion reactor.

Electra Kotopoulou (BSc, MSc) has completed her MSc thesis in Applied Environmental Geology in July 2015. Her thesis is entitled: "Biogenic Sulfur Minerals and Geochemistry in the Shallow–Submarine Environment of the Hellenic Volcanic Arc: the case off Milos Island Hydrothermal System". This project involved a series of applications of laboratory techniques, such as SEM-EDS, p-XRD, IRS, ICP-MS/OES, Gamma-ray Spectroscopy, as well as Synchrotron Radiation (SR) Spectroscopy (μ-XRF, μ-XANES, μ-EXAFS, μ-XRD) in order to: a) study the biomineralogy and geochemistry of Milos hydrothermal system, b) investigate the S, Fe and As mineral chemistry, distribution and speciation in the marine chemical phases, c) evaluate the levels of natural radioactivity in the marine sediments and d) assess the environmental impact of the possible elements leaching (e.g. As) in the seawater and the coastal zone. Electra is now a PhD candidate in the University of Granada (ES) with her research being funded by a prestigious ERC grant [twitter]

Marialena Christopoulou (BSc, MSc) has recently completed her MSc thesis in Oceanography at the Dept. of Geology of the University of Athens. Her MSc dissertation dealt with the CTD data analysis at the hydrothermal field of Kolumbo volcano and the investigation of its connection to the morphology. She is now pursuing a PhD, focusing on the analysis of CTD data from active locations in the Aegean Volcanic Arc in an attempt to explain the role of hydrothermal venting in CO₂ overcharging in closed volcanic systems. She is now a PhD candidate in Oceanography. [fb]

Fani Papageorgiou (BSc, MSc) has received her MSc in Geology from the NuSTRAP group, working on "Estimation of the Environmental Impact of the phosphogypsum stockpile in the Schistos waste site (Piraeus, Greece) using a combination of laboratory techniques and GIS". Her project involved a well-balanced combination of several laboratory techniques to estimate the concentration of radioactivity in a very sensitive area where radium-226 was deposited as an industrial by-product in phosphogypsum. She has presented her work in major international conferences, has a peer-reviewed proceedings article published and a research paper in the works. She is now a PhD candidate at University College Dublin to work on a hydrogeology project involving uranium tracers [twitter]

Undergraduate Students

Foivos-Panagiotis Gelatsoras (BSc 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.

Argyro Karakitsou (BSc Candidate) is an undergraduate student at the Department of Physics at the University of Athens. She is mostly interested in experimental Physics and data analysis as she enjoys understanding and explaining the implementation of different theories in the real world. She is currently taking her first steps in programming in Matlab. For her thesis she is exploring underlying mathematical structures in long time-series of cosmic radiation. Specifically, she performs the GMM method on neutron data to deduce threeshold values for solar erruptions and Forbush decreases. Argyro is fluent in English and has elementary proficiency in French. In her free time she enjoys exploring the city with her friends,reading books and articles, being active in the human rights department and maybe going on a camping trip.

Michalis Kontis (BSc Candidate) has joined the NuSTRAP group at the beginning of his senior year, looking to work on a computational project involving state of the art instrumentation and detector simulation. He has taken over the responsibility to carry detailed Geant4 simulations on various setup alternatives involving the proposed gSPEC apparatus at GSI. He is currently serving his mandatory duty in the Greek Army forces awaiting graduation.

Nikolas Kastanis (BSc Candidate) has worked on the design, development and deployment of a mobile spectroscopy system featuring NaI detectors, autonomous power and scalability for a variety of in situ measurements of environmental radioactivity.

Giannis Vitsikanos (BSc Candidate) was born in Athens in 1996. He is a senior student in the Department of Physics in UOA. He joined the NuSTRAP team in his final year to study the perturbed angular distribution of gamma rays from nuclei experiencing a static magnetic field. Giannis speaks Greek (native), English(C2) and French (B2) in addition to programming knowledge in C and Python. In his spare time he enjoys biking, skiing and weight lifting.

Chronis Karpodinis has joined the group to work on calculations of cross sections in neutron-induced reactions with ²⁴¹Am, giving special focus on achieving optimal results to describe the available experimental data in a simultaneous fashion.

Anastasia Kotsovolou (BSc Candidate) was born in 1997 and grew up in Kalamata, Greece. Anastasia is now a senior student in the Physics Department of the University of Athens. She is mostly fascinated by nuclear physics and astrophysics. She is currently participating in experimental work at the Tandem Lab of NSCR "D", focusing on upgrading the BGO Ball Detector Array. She speaks Greek, English (proficiency) and German (goethe B1). She enjoys dancing, drawing and literature.

Christina Fakiola (BSc Candidate) was born in Athens in 1997. She is a senior student in the Physics Department of the University of Athens, and became a member of the NuSTRAP group from the first year. She is mostly interested in nuclear physics and astrophysics. She has worked in a team of students constructing the first radiation map of the University campus by measuring natural radioactivity, but she has now switched to more fundamental aspects of nuclear astrophysics, focusing on a sensitivity study of the p-process. She speaks fluently Greek, English (Proficiency) and some German (B1 Goethe Zertifikat). She also plays the violin and the piano and enjoys literature.

Stefanos Pelonis was born in Athens in 1999 and is currently a sophomore in the Department of physics at the UOA. His initial focus was the understanding of angular distributions of gamma rays emitted from nuclei, but he is now working on the upgrade of a dedicated nuclear electromagnetic moments database. Stefanos speaks greek (native), English (CPE) and has adequate programming knowledge of C. In his spare time, he enjoys literature and weight lifting.

Stelios Karalis has joined the group with a special interest on numerical analysis methods applied on nuclear data. He has taken over the research work to create a neural network algorithm to describe the full extent of experimental data of nuclear charge radii.

Ioanna Psyrra (BSc Candidate) is currently a senior student at the Physics Department of the University of Athens. For her bachelor thesis, Ioanna will carry out nuclear astrophysics measurements at the Tandem Accelerator Laboratory (INPP, NCSR Demokritos).

Georgios Zagoraios (BSc Candidate) was born in Athens in 1994. He is currently in his final year of studies at the Physics Department of UoA and is interested in nuclear experimental physics and associated technology. He has worked on several projects in the group, including the developemnt of an analog controller for electromagnets used in magnetic moment measurements with the Transient Field Technique. For his BSc thesis, Georgios is focused on magnetic moment measurements from data accumulated at ISOLDE. He speaks english and some german. He is also an alpine hiker and a scout leader.

Giannis Karakasis (BSc Candidate) was born in Athens in 1998. He is an undergraduate in the Physics Department of the University of Athens. So far, his work with the NuSTRAP group focused on detailed calculations of cross sections using the Hauser-Fehsback theory, but he has recently started preparing for nuclear sepctroscopy studies. Giannis speaks Greek (native), English (Advanced) and German (B1). He also enjoys playing the guitar and composing music.

Stavros Bofos (BSc Candidate) is an undergraduate student in the Physics Department of the University of Athens, and became a member of the NuSTRAP group from the first year of his studies. He has initially worked on a small-scale investigation of spectroscopic data of superheavy nuclei in terms of critical point symmetries. For his BSc thesis, Stavros is working on the theoretical aspects of magnetic octupole moments. He speaks Greek (native), English and basic French. He also enjoys playing basketball and volleyball.

Martin Manuel Gomez Miguez (BSc) was born in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in 1997 and studies in Universidad de La Laguna (ULL). He has recently been awarded an Erasmus+ grant and has joined NuSTRAP to work on a statistical analysis of CTD measurements from submarine vents in the Department of physics. Martín is mainly interested in cosmology, fluid dynamics and electrodynamics. He speaks fluent Spanish and English and its mother tongue is Galician, so he can understand Portuguese really well. He has advanced skills in Python and also has acquired skills in C++, Latex and Arduino. He also was a Congress organizer of COEFIS XI and COEFIS XII, the Physics Student Congress of ULL, which was attended by renowned physicist, such as Masahiro Teshima and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji.

Spyros Peroulis (BSc Candidate) is currently in his senior year of his undergraduate studies. Even though he admires experimental Nuclear Physics and all the inspired techniques used nowadays, he prefers to be a theorist, asking deep questions about the foundations of Nuclear Physics and our way to see the world. Spyros has collaborated with another member of the group on performing calculations for the production of secondary exotic beams in RIB facilities, such as NSCL (USA) and RIKEN (Japan), using the LISE++ code. He has recently started working on his BSc thesis involving critical point symmetries, collaborationg with Dennis Bonatsos' group at NCSR "Democritos". He speaks Greek (native), English and Italian (fluently), as well as basic French. Spyros has advanced skills on Windows Environment and writting in LaTeX. Also he has basic programming knowledge in C and Mathematica.

Nikos Maniatis (BSc candidate) is in his last year of his undergraduate studies and is a new member of the NuSTRAP group. His is currently working on his BSc thesis involving simulations regarding the FAIR/gSPEC detector/magnet setup in Germany, using the Geant4 toolkit. He is interested in the use of simulations in physics and especially nuclear physics, hence has acquired programming skills in C, Matlab and writing in LaTeX. Nikos is fluent in Greek and English and is an electric guitarist, who also works part time as a guitar tutor.

Konstantinos Bosbotinis is a senior undergraduate Physics student highly interested in experimental nuclear science. He is working on independent analysis of experimental (p,n) data in silver isotopes.

Dimitrios Papaioannou (BSc Candidate) was born in Athens in 1993 and is in his senior year in the Faculty of Physics. He is interested in experimental Nuclear Physics and the various techniques used in modern day experiments. Dimitris has collaborated with another member of the group on performing calculations for the production of secondary nuclear beams in RIB facilities, such as NSCL (USA) and RIKEN (Japan), using LISE++. He has recently started working on a project involving nuclear moment measurements at ISOLDE. He has competent knowledge of LaTeX and speaks Greek, English (Proficiency) and basic French. He also enjoys playing basketball and reading books.

Patroklos-Miltiadis Mamaloukas (BSc) was born in 1995, Patroklos is in his senior year of his undergraduate studies. His main research interests lie in nuclear energy and properties of fusion and fission, nucleosynthesis, experimental setups of the aforementioned, as well as theoretic models concerning elemetal nuclear properties. Language credentials include C2 (Michigan) in English and C1 (Sorbonne) in French.

Nike Togia (BSc) is a Physics student at the University of Athens. She is currently working on her BSc thesis involving Photon Activation Analysis, a versatile nuclear technique for elemental analysis. In this framework she will use a linear accelerator at Agios Savvas hospital and germanium detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy at INRASTES/NCSR "Demokritos". Nike speaks English, French and basic Spanish; she loves travelling, volunteering, exercise and handcrafting.

Vasilis Skarlis (BSc) (aka Bill) was born in Athens in 1995 and is currently in his final year of his undergraduate studies working in his senior thesis. He is captivated by nuclear physics and has recently joined NuSTRAP in order to learn more. He speaks English (Proficiently) and basic French. Bill has good skills on Windows and Linux environments, fairly good knowledge of some programming languages (for example python, C and LaTeX) and basic knowledge of video animation software.

Vanessa Papakosta (BSc) is a senior student in the Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment at UoA and currently cooperates with the NuSTRAP group for her Bsc thesis. Her research focuses on the underwater hydrothermal field of the Methana Peninsula using scintillators to perform gamma specroscopy studies. She loves nature and hiking and enjoys being involved in any kind of sports (such as taekwondo, bjj). She also dances rock'n'roll and loves boardgames-RPGs and theater, as she had participated in theatrical groups.

Peggy Micha, BSc was born in 1993 in Athens and grew up in Aigaleo. She is near completion of her studies at the Department of Physics. She is particularly interested in both experimental Nuclear Physics and Medical Physics, targeting a MSc degree in the near future in one of the two scientific fields. She is a book lover, movie-goer and a dedicated Panathinaikos fan. She holds a CPA degree in English.

Sofia Kolovi (BSc) has been a long-standing collaborator of NuSTRAP group before she officially became one of its active members. Sofia has experience in radiation physics and applications. She has collaborated with Ion Stamatelatos' group at NCSR "Demokritos" on a project involving XRF studies of cultural heritage preservation, while she has recently completed an Imaging Plate characterization with neutrons as part of an internship. She is an english speaker and a genuine coffee lover [twitter]

Kallia Tsampa (BSc) was born in Athens in 1989 and is a senior Physics student. She is interested in nuclear target making and characterization using accelerated proton beams. She speaks english and italian, plays the piano since 7 yrs old and is also a member of a music band [twitter]

Vassilis Bitzios (BSc, MSc) was born in 1994 in Athens and he has been a student in the Physics Department of University of Athens. For his BSc thesis, Vassilis intends to simulate a prototype gamma spectrometer for marine applications. Options for materials, geometries and crystals have been investigated thoroughly. He is now pursuing a MSc in medical physics. He also likes astronomy and reading.

Marilena Lykiardopoulou (BSc) was born in 1994 in Kefalonia, where she lived during her childhood. Marilena has recently graduated from the University of Athens, exploring her options to continue her studies to an undergraduate level. Her academic interests focus on nuclear structure, as a cornerstone for understanding the world we live in, and also as an asset for new technological applications that may improve our lives. She speaks greek, english (proficiency) and french (Delf B2). In her spare time, she enjoys literature and texts of philosophy.

Angelos Babounis (BSc) has been a member of our group till very recently. He has graduated from the Physics Department working on a BSc thesis that focused on the analysis of nuclear astrophysics experimental data. He has measured the radiative proton capture in silver nuclei and is now looking forward to continuing his studies to a MSc degree. Besides his physics interests he is a semi-pro soccer player.

Gilho Ahn (BSc, MSc) has graduated from the Department of Physics. He speaks Korean, Greek and English fluently. Gilho originally joined our group with the desire to study theoretical nuclear physics. He undertook the task to study critical symmetries in nuclei under our collborator Dr. Panos Georgoudis' guidance, who is an expert in the field. Available experimental data were also compiled in a database to facilitate comparison with the theoretical predictions. He is now enrolled as a MSc student in Physics. [twitter]

Efthimios Kouvaris (BSc) has graduated from the Physics Department. He worked with our group on chracterizing gamma-radiation detectors. For his thesis, he tested and calibrated a new spectroscopic station for radiation measurements in environmental samples. He speaks english (First Certificate) and german (Grundstufe). In his spare time he likes painting and playing the guitar.

Vaso Angelopoulou (BSc, MSc) was born in Kalamata in 1990. She graduated from the Physics Department in 2015. She has worked on her BSc thesis focusing on studying detailed characteristics of a HPGe detector, both efficiency and crystal-geometry related. She has been an ERASMUS exchange student at Uni. Bonn, Germany. She is interested in Medical Physics, Nuclear and Particle Physics at both experimental and theoretical level. She is a volunteer tutor at the Ilissia Community Recitation School, studies dancing and singing. She likes traveling and meeting new people.

Christina Katsiva, (BSc, MSc) has joined the group as a senior Physics student in 2014. She was especially interested in radiation effects on humans, therefore she had taken over the task to estimate the risk to the population of Athens, a megacity of 5 million, by NORM levels measured in its grounds and surrounding areas. She is now pursuing a MSc degree in Medical Physics.

Chara Chroni (BSc) worked on environmental applications of synchrotron radiation, as a member of the NUSTRAP collaboration. She has graduated from the Department of Nuclear & Particle Physics. She has extensive tutoring experience at a professional level (over 15 years). She is a mother of two girls (plus one on the way!), speaks good english and has basic knowledge of french and italian.

Eleni Mitsi (BSc,MSc) was born in 1988. She has graduated from "Protypo Lykeio Athinon" with a grade of 19.2/20. Her curiosity about how the world runs led her to the Department of Physics in 2006. Since 2007 she's been working part time as a physics tutor. Throughout her occupation with physics she came to realize that the experimental application of science fascinates her, therefore her bachelor thesis is about experimental data and processes at the microscale, studied by synchrotron radiation. Apart from science, She is enchanted by art, especially by theatre, therefore she participates in a theatrical group and she dances tango. She also loves rowing and learning new languages; She speaks English, German and a few French and wishes to learn Chinese.

Alexis Karailias (BSc) was born in Amfissa in 1984. He has recently completed his studies at the Physics Department of the University of Athens (09.2014). Alexis worked on setting up and calibrating portable radioactivity monitors, based on NaI scintillators. At a second stage, he conducted detailed investigations of NORM levels near Athens with in-situ measurements.

Eirini Pappa (BSc) is in her last year of studies at the Physics Department. For her BSc thesis, Eirini studied several physical parameters of the active Kolumbo volcano close to Santorini, based on recent data collected by deep-sea ROV. Her experience working with the NuSTRAP people, motivated her further to explore additional research opportunities, collaborating with Dr. Ion Stamatelatos (INRASTES, NCSR Demokritos) on a radiation protection project. She has been a volunteer in NGOs, she plays the harmonica and is a pro tennis player.

Athanasios Psaltis (BSc) was born in 1992 in Athens, Greece. In 2010 he graduated "Mikis Theodorakis" High School at Skala Oropou with a grade of 19.5/20 and started his undergraduate studies in Physics at the University of Athens. His first project with the group was to assist in upgrading the Electromagnetic Moment online database. For this BSc thesis, he conducted measurements of (p,γ) cross sections in astrophysically interesting isotopes. He speaks and writes English and French fluently, has strong skills on Windows environment and is familiar with programming in C, FORTRAN, HTML and Mathematica. Thanassis has many interests, including track & field, in which he won the National Student Championship in 2006 in 80m dash, is involved in political and social activism, and in the production of an independent web radio station. He graduated in 2014 and is now a graduate student at McMaster University, Canada. [WWW] [twitter]

Eleftheria Malami (BSc, MSc) is now a Physics graduate from the University of Athens. She has recently completed working on her bachelor thesis that dealt with measurements in nuclear astrophysics systems. For her work, she conducted experimental work at the Tandem Accelerator Lab at Demokritos in Athens. She is now a graduate student in Netherlands aiming at research on astroparticle physics.

Constantinos Vassalos (BSc, MSc) was born in Athens. He has recently completed his studies at the Physics Department. For his senior year thesis Konstantinos has investigated microscale geochemical formations from the Kolumbo volcano at Santorini using advanced spectroscopic techniques based on synchrotron radiation. He has graduated from the Oceanograpy and Marine Environment program at UoA. [twitter]

Myrto-Eleni Assimakopoulou (BSc, MSc) was born in 1990 in Athens. She is a graduate of the American College of Greece (Pierce College, class of 2008) and has been an undergraduate student at the Physics Department of the University of Athens since October of 2008. She has been an Erasmus Program scholar, visiting the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark during 2011. Her bachelor thesis dealt with nuclear astrophysics systems, carrying out measurements at the Tandem Accelerator of the Institute of Nuclear Physics at Demokritos, in Athens. She has recently graduated from KTH, Stockholm with a MSc in nuclear physics, continuing her studies to PhD level in Uppsala.

Nikos Moraitis (BSc, MSc). As a senior Physics student at the University of Athens, Nikos worked on studying the Hg toxicity in lagoon ecosystems of western Greece using data taken from X-ray microbeam spectroscopic techiques (XRF/XANES/XAFS) at the ANKA synchrotron in Germany. He works part-time as a physics tutor and in his free time, he plays the drums in a band and has basic skills in sound recording and digital mixing. Nikos has graduated from the Medical Physics and Radiation Protection MSc program and is pursuing a professional career in the field.

Ioannis Ioannidis (BSc, MSc) was born in Larisa in 1990 and lives in Athens since 2008. He has recently graduated from the Physics Department. His senior thesis dealt with the "Depth distribution of radiocesium and natural radioisotopes in soils of Northern Greece". For his project he has performed gamma spectroscopy measurements. He has recently graduated from the Medical Physics and Radiation Protection MSc program.

Nikoleta Hatzikonstantinou (BSc, MSc) graduated from the Physics Department and is now a graduate student ("Mathematics in Business Management"). She was actively involved in the analysis of iron particulates deposited on southeast Mediterranean Sea and mainland of Greece by the waves of Saharan dust. She focused on data collected with advanced X-ray spectroscopy techniques combined to ultrabright synchrotron microbeams provided by the SUL-X line at ANKA/KIT.

Anastasios Kanellakopoulos (BSc, MSc) was born in Patra in 1990 and lives in Athens. He graduated from the University of Athens in 2013 and moved for graduate studies to NTUA. He has been a collaborator since 2012 and conducted his graduation thesis entitled "Application of RBS and NRA spectroscopy for the study of nuclear targets and thin films" by carrying measurements at the Tandem Accelerator of INPP, NCSR "Demokritos". He has recently joined Prof. Gerda Neyens's group at KU Leuven to work on laser spectroscopy studies and nuclear moments. [twitter]

Varvara Lagaki (BSc, MSc) was born in Athens in 1990. She graduated from the Department of Nuclear Physics of the University of Athens, in 2014. She has been a nustrapista since 2012, doing her senior thesis project on "Nuclear targets characterization using Ion Beam Analysis (IBA)", carrying out measurement at the Tandem Accelerator of INPP, NCSR "Demokritos". She has earned a MSc degree from NTUA working at NCSR "Demokritos" and is now a PhD candidate at ISOLDE/CERN supported by an ERC grant. [twitter]

Kostas Stamou (BSc, MSc) was born in Athens, Greece in 1987. He is a senior Physics student at the University of Athens. He has completed his graduation project in Medical Physics, which involved the periodic study and quality control of the photon beam linear accelerator in radiotherapy at the anticancer hospital "Agios Savvas" in Athens. He is currently involved in the expansion, automation and upgrade of the electromagnetic moments database. He has also professional experience as an Administrator in Linux and Windows Servers. He has recently graduated from Aberdeen, now pursuing a PhD in Medical Physics at the Academy of Athens.

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