Ultrafast Laser Micro and Nano Processing Laboratory
Prof. George Kioseoglou (PI)
Dr. George Kioseoglou is Professor at the Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering of the University of Crete and an affiliated member at FORTH/IESL. He obtained his PhD in Physics from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1999 in the area of spectroscopic studies of electronic states in semiconductor heterostructures. After a postdoctoral position at Brookhaven National Laboratory, he joined the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington DC working on efficient electrical spin injection and detection in semiconductors. From 2004 to 2007 he was a National Research Council Fellow with the materials physics branch at NRL. In 2007 he joined the Department of Materials Science and served as its Director of Graduate Studies in the period of 2010-2015. His main research interests are in the physics and applications of semiconductor nanostructures, Spintronics and Valleytronics, and in the electronic and optical properties of 2D materials.
Prof. Kioseoglou has shared 3 times the NRL Alan Berman research publication award for his work on spin injection in GaAs and Si spin-LEDs. He has co-authored more than 100 scientific publications in refereed journals (with 4 very highly cited papers in Spintronics and another 4 in 2D-Materials), more than 7200 total citations and an h-index of 39, and more than 280 contributed conference presentations. He gave more than 30 invited talks in international conferences and written one book chapter in Handbook of Spintronics and two invited review papers. He is an active member of the American Physical Society and serves in APS and MMM conferences.
Dr. Athanasia Kostopoulou (co-PI)
Dr. Athanasia Kostopoulou earned her B.Sc. degree in Physics (2004) and her M.Sc. degree in Materials Physics & Technology (2006), both from the Physics Department at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Chemistry Department at the University of Crete in 2012. Since then, her research career has been based at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) at FORTH, and since 2017, she initiated the “Nanomaterials” research group in the Ultrafast Laser Micro and Nano Processing Laboratory. Dr. Kostopoulou has also expanded her research experience through visits to international research institutes, including the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Germany and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Italy. A significant aspect of her career includes securing funding to support her research, particularly as a young researcher, including a Postdoctoral Fellowship for new researchers (2018-2019) and funding from the H.F.R.I. Research Project to Support Postdoctoral Researchers. Notably, she has published in several prominent scientific journals, including Chemical Reviews, Advanced Science, Small, and Nanophotonics. Her research interests encompass the development of synthesis protocols for micro/nano-scale materials and shape/morphological and compositional modification of the materials via fragmentation, doping, anion, and cation exchanges. She is also focused on light-matter interactions to optimize materials for application-specific properties. The materials developed seek applications in optoelectronics, gas sensing (environmental gas and VOCs in breath and food), and energy storage.
Dr. Konstantinos Brintakis (co-PI)
Dr Konstantinos Brintakis is a research associate at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL-FORTH). He received his BSc and MSc degrees in Physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh, Greece), specializing in Materials Physics and Technology. In 2017, he earned his PhD with Excellence from AUTh. His doctoral thesis, completed in collaboration with the Physics Department and IESL-FORTH, investigated the growth and organization of hybrid nanocrystals, focusing on their structural, electronic, and magnetic properties.
Dr. Emmanuel Stratakis
Dr Emmanuel Stratakis is a Research Director at the Institute of Electronic structure and laser (IESL) of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas(FORTH), where he is leading the “Ultrafast Laser Micro- and Nano- processing” laboratory). He received his Ph.D. in Physics in 2001 from the University of Crete. He has been a Visiting Scientist at the University of California Berkeley in the fall semesters of 2006 and 2008. He has over 220 SCI publications and more than 16000 citations,h-index=70 (Scopus), and he has coordinated many National and EU grants. He has delivered more than 40 invited and keynote lectures and has been organizer and chair in major international scientific conferences. He has been an Editor of the journals ‘Optoelectronic Advances’, ‘Materials Today (Bio)’, ‘Applied Sciences’ and ‘International Journal of molecular Sciences’. Since 2015, he is the Director of the European Nanoscience Facility of FORTH, part of the NFFA-Europe EU Infrastructure, where he is a member of the General Assembly. He is a National expert in the High-Level Group of EU on Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of COST. Since January 2020 he is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Biomimetic (https://www.biomimetic.gr/).
Dr. Feidias Bairamis
Dr. Feidias Bairamis is an environmental engineer and is a holder of a Ph.D. in Chemistry. He received his M.Sc. degree in 2018 under the supervision of Emeritus Professor Tiverios Vaimakis and his Ph.D. in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Ioannis Konstaninou at the Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry from the University of Ioannina in Greece. His master’s thesis focused on the research field of Advanced Materials Chemistry, Catalysis and Technological Applications, especially with the topic “Simultaneous photocatalytic reduction of Cr (VI) and phenol oxidation using Ag-modified TiO2 nanoparticles”. He received a full-time scholarship (3 years, October 2019 – October 2022) based on academic criteria from the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) (ranked 8th in the field of Sciences) for his PhD thesis with the topic: ‘Synthesis and characterization of WO3/g-C3N4 heterostructures and photocatalytic applications for the removal of pollutants from aquatic systems’. He has worked as a post-Doc researcher in the Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry at the University of Ioannina for 8 months (March 2023-September 2023) in the framework of the project: “Development of research infrastructure for the design, production, development of quality characteristics and safety of agrofoods and functional foods (RI-Agrofoods)” (MIS 5047235) which was implemented under the Action “Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure”, funded by the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (NSFR 2014-2020) and co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund). Lately (April 2024 – March 2025), he has worked as a post-Doc researcher at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) in Crete (Heraklion) and especially at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) for the research project entitled “Green Perovskites/2D Conjugates: From Materials Design to High Energy Li-ion Cells” which funded from Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) [Greece 2.0 Basic Research Financing Action (Horizontal support of all Sciences) Sub-action II]. Also, he has participated, as co-author, in 17 scientific papers published in international peer-reviewed journals and many attendances/presentations at different conferences.
Dr. George Landrou
Dr Georgios Landrou is a postdoctoral researcher at the Ultrafast Laser Micro and Nano Processing Laboratory in the Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser (IESL) – Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), in Heraklion, Crete. He received his PhD in chemistry from the Department of Chemistry of the University of Crete. Throughout his studies, he developed extensive expertise in the synthesis, modification, and characterization of chromophores, such as Porphyrins and Carbon Dots for energy and medical applications. He also gained valuable experience in photocatalytic and electrocatalytic systems for hydrogen evolution and CO2 reduction. During his postgraduate studies, he was awarded a scholarship (2018-2021) from the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) and another (2020-2021) from the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO). Additionally, he completed a research internship at the Aix-Marseille University through the Erasmus+ scholarship. His current research interests include the synthesis of materials, such as Perovskite and Upconversion materials, and exploring their applications in energy storage and sensing.