Activity Coordinator
Stavros Pissadakis, PhD
Dr. Stavros Pissadakis is a Director of Research at FORTH-IESL, leading the Photonic Materials and Devices Laboratory (PMDL). He obtained his Ptichion degree in Physics from the University of Crete, Greece and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering/Photonics from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton, UK. He has been employed as a Research Fellow in ORC, UK, as Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Computer and Electronic Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece, as Visiting Assistant Professor in Physics Department, University of Crete, and as Visiting Professor at the Information Engineering Department, University of Parma, Italy. He joined FORTH-IESL on year 2003, and shortly after he established the PMDL in the premises of FORTH. He has been heavily involved in the European Platform Photonics21, being a Member of the BoS, while also chaired the national platform PhotonicsGR. He has been involved into several research projects (European, national, industrial), personally attracted a total budget greater than 1.75MEuros. His current scientific interests include photonic crystal and microstructured optical fiber devices, whispering gallery mode resonators, optical fiber sensors, optofluidics/magnetofluidics and study of optical materials photosensitivity. He is a Senior Member of OSA and a Topical Editor of Applied Optics.
pissas(at)iesl.forth.gr
Researcher ID: C-6091-2011
Staff Researchers
Maria Konstantaki, PhD (Principal Application Scientist)
Maria Konstantaki received the B.S. degree in Physics from Crete University, Greece in 1993 and the PhD in Electrical Engineering from Strathclyde University, Scotland in 1997. From 1994 to 1997 she was a Marie Curie PhD research fellow in Strathclyde University investigating optical fibre sensors for Structural Health Monitoring applications. In 1998 she joined the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) where she now holds the position of Principal Application Scientist (ELE B’). She has been involved in research on the non-linear properties of novel materials, photosensitivity studies and grating inscription in standard and photonic crystal optical fibres. Her current scientific interests are focused in the design and development of optical fibre sensors and the endorsement of the technology by end users beyond the laboratory environment. Dr Konstantaki is an author or co-author of more than 100 journal and conference publications.
mkonst(at)iesl.forth.gr
Researcher ID: A-2412-2014
Post-doctoral Researchers
Ivan Chapalo, PhD
Dr. Ivan Chapalo received the Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2011 and 2017 correspondingly. He conducted his postdoctoral research at the Radiophysics Department, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in 2017-2020 and at the Department of Electromagnetism and Telecommunication, University of Mons in 2020-2023. Dr. Ivan Chapalo joined IESL-FORTH as a postdoctoral researcher in July 2023. He is a co-author of 30+ publications, and he is a winner of a number grants and scholarships. His professional and research interests are fiber optic sensors, multimode optical fibers and sensors, fiber Bragg gratings, polymer optical fibers, LabVIEW programming.
Research Assistant
Vasilis Sarakatsianos
Vasilis Sarakatsianos has graduated from the Department of Physics of University of Athens in 2020, with a major in Solid State Physics. His undergraduate dissertation involved the study of the Flexoelectric effect in Nematic Liquid crystals, while in another project he studied the 2-d Ising Model using Monte Carlo Methods. In September 2020, he enrolled in the Photonics and Nanoelectronics master's programme at University of Crete. His thesis involved the fabrication of an optical fiber sensor for the detection of perfluorinated vapors. He received his master’s degree in September 2023 and since he has been employed by IESL FORTH as a laboratory technician in PMDL. His current work revolves around the implementation of FBG-based strain sensors on ophthalmic sutures.
anuja.padhye(at)iesl.forth.gr
Eleni Grantzioti
Eleni Grantzioti is a Research Assistant at the Photonic Materials and Devices Laboratory (PMDL). She received her B.Sc. degree in Physics from the University of Crete, Greece in 2023. As an undergraduate student, she joined the PMDL for her bachelor's research project on the development and study of optical fiber sensors. After her studies, she completed her internship at the Department of Applied Physics and Photonics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Students
Nikos Korakas[PhD Student]
Nikos Korakas was born in Athens, Greece, in 1988. He studied Physics in the University of Crete, Greece, and he received his degree in 2012. Recently he received his master degree “Microsystem and Nanodevices” from National Technical University of Athens. He joined PMDL in May 2016 as a PhD student working on experimental and theoretical investigation of disruptive light localization in MOFs for the development of novel photonic devices.
nkorakas (at) iesl.forth.gr
Polyxeni Giouni [MSc Student]
Polyxeni Giouni has graduated from the Physics Department of University of Ioannina in 2022. She is currently a MSc student at “Photonics and Nanoelectronics” program of University of Crete. Her thesis as an undergraduate student refers to the study of metallic and ceramic materials, using LIBS method with femtosecond laser pulses. She is now aspired to work on device development using soft matter photonics.
Panagiotis Kleitsiotis [Undergraduate student]
Panagiotis Kleitsiotis is an undergraduate student at the Physics Department of the University of Crete. He is currently working on his undergraduate thesis on the development of optical fiber sensors using copper oxide overlayer.
Anastasia Vantaraki [Undergraduate Student]
Anastasia Vantaraki is an undergraduate student at the Physics Department of the University of Crete. She is at the 4th year of her studies and currently working on her final year research project on fiber Bragg grating sensors.
Former Members and Visitors
- Dr. Cesar Elosúa Aguado Visitor
- Dr. Anuja Padhye Post Doc
- Dr. Diego López-Torres Post Doc
- Dr. George Violakis Post Doc
- Davide Vurro PhD Student
- Dimitra Skiani Undergraduate Student
- Vasileia Melissinaki PhD Student (Next Position: Post-doctoral Fellow at Non-linear Lithography group of IESL-FORTH)
- Dimitrios Dolapsakis Master student
- Georgia Konstantinou Master student (Next Position: PhD student at Photonic Systems Laboratory, EPFL, Switcherland)
- Eirini Tagoudi Master student (Next Position: PhD student at Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices EPFL, Switcherland)
- Dr. Ioannis Konidakis Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Next Position: Post-doctoral Fellow at Ultrafast Laser Micro/Nano- Processing Group, IESL/FORTH)
- Dr. Kyriaki Kosma Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Next Position: Post-doctoral Fellow at Lasers for Art's Sake, IESL/FORTH)
- Dr. Karolina Milenko Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Next Position: Post-doctoral Fellow at Nanoelectronics and Photonics Research Group, NTNU)
- Dr. Alessandro Candiani PhD Student (Next Position: Post - doctoral Fellow at Group of Applied Electro-Magnetics (GAEM), University of Parma, Italy)
- Dr. Gianluigi Zito Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Next Position: Post-doctoral Research Fellow at University of Napoli Federico II, Italy)
- Dr. Paul Childs Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Next Position: Senior IT Programmer at Allied Express, Australia)
- Dr. Aashia Rahman Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Next Position: Research IP Professional at GE Global Research, India)
- Dr. Jan Vanda Post-doctoral Research Fellow(Next Position: Junior researcher at Institute of Physics Czech Academy of Science, Czech Republic)
- Dr. Michele Sozzi PhD Student (Next Position: Currenty Post - doctoral Fellow Group of Applied Electro-Magnetics (GAEM), University of Parma)
- Dr. Georgios Tsibidis Research Fellow IESL - FORTH
- George Violakis MSc Student (Next Position: Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Optical Fiber Device group, EPFL, Switcherland)
- Salvador Torres Phd Student (visitor, Univ. Valencia, Spain)
- Christos Pappas Msc student (Next Position: with FORTH - PHOTONICS)
- Evangelos Vagiartakis Msc student
- Christina Spitieri Msc student
- Michalis Livitzis Msc student (Next Position: PhD student, University of Cyprus)
- Irini Michelakaki Msc student (Next Position: PhD student, NTUA Athens)
- Nikos Poumpouridis Undergraduate student
- Emmanouil Anthoulakis Undergraduate student
- Giannis Fragkos Undergraduate student
- Kostas Pahis Undergraduate student
- Waldemar Deibel Undergraduate student (Next Position: Head-Hardware Developer at Advanced Osteotomy Tools-AOT AG)
- Christos Mourikis Undergraduate student (Next Position: Intern at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
- Stavros Timotheatos Internship
- Sylvia Fedele Internship
