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].
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.
Katerina Zyriliou (PhD candidate) a PhD candidate
in the Section of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the
University of Athens. She was born in Athens in 1994 and
graduated from the Department of Physics at the University of
Ioannina in 2016. Her BSc thesis focused on studying the
resonances in the 12C-12C reaction by
performing experiments at the Tandem Accelerator Lab (NCSR
Demokritos) under Prof. X. Aslanoglou's supervision. She is
interested in experimental aspects of nuclear physics and has
joined NuSTRAP group soon after she was admitted in the
Department of Physics MSc program, where she worked on the
analysis of gamma angular distributions of medium-heavy
nuclei. She obtained her MSc in summer 2018. She speaks good
english and some french. She has advanced skills on Windows
and basic programming skills on C++ and LaTeX. She has been
working professionally as a classic and modern dancer for the
past 13 years. She enjoys movies and video games.
Ana Dura (BSc, MSc) was born in Tepelene,
Albania in 1994 and was raised in Athens, Greece. She
graduated from the Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment in
2016 and went on with her MSc studies in Environmental,
Disaster and Crisis Management. Her MSc thesis focused on the
Disaster Management Cycle in the Philippines after Typhoon
Haiyan swept across the country in 2013, and consisted of
primary data along the path of the typhoon. She currently
pursues a PhD degree working on the development of machine
learning algorithms aiming at natural hazards risk
assessment. Ana is an ELIDEK Scholar. Her scientific fields
of interest oscillate between geology, physics, chemistry and
mathematics. Ana grew up in diversity and speaks six
languages. She is an incognito freelance short story writer
and a genuine lover of the fine arts. She is passionate about
leading a healthy lifestyle and is exceptionally adventurous.
Ioannis Sideris (BSc) has recently joined the group
to work on open nuclear structure questions emerging in fusion evaporation
reactions. His work will focus on reaction residues following (p,t)
and (p,3He) in fp-shell nuclei. The work is estimated to support future
experimental measurements of the group in international labs.
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.
Margarita Efstathiou was born in 1999 and
she grew up in Athens. She is an undergraduate student in the
Department of Physics in the University of Athens. Margarita has
taken over the analysis of recent data from the gamma detection
array ROSPHERE to study the excitation functions of stable Yb
isotopes impinged by 12C ions. Generally, she loves
experimental physics because she likes to see the laws of nature
in action and how to set up a layout to do this. She has basic
knowledge in programming in Matlab environment. Her favorite hobbies
are travelling, theatre, playing videogames and watching football.
Polytimi Iosifidou (b. 2000, Athens) was
firstly exposed in the world of physics in 4th grade and since then
all her career decisions were easy to make. At the moment she is an
undergraduate student in the Dept. of Physics and has recently joined
the NuSTRAP group. She speaks greek (native), english (C2-Cambridge)
and german (B2-Goethe) and also has programming skills in C++ and
python, which are much needed in the project about exotic nuclei
masses, that she is currently working on. For her, constantly
questioning our perspectives is the only way to make progress in our
understanding of Nature.
Michalis Kontis 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.
Christos Andrikopoulos (BSc Candidate) is a
senior student at UoA/Physics that has joined the NuSTRAP
group very early in his academic studies. He speaks good
French, is proficient in English (TOEIC & Michigan
Proficiency) and some Russian is there, too. For the time
being, he is. He has a passion for nuclear physics, and
discovery in general. For his BSc thesis he works at the
Tandem Lab of NCSR "D" setting up a neutron detector
array. His favorite hobbies are drawing, travelling,
woodworking and tinkering.
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.