Category Archives: Post Doctoral Fellows


Dr. Joan Papavasiliou graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering in the University of Patras, Greece in 2003. She received her PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the same department & in collaboration with the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (FORTH/ICE-HT) in 2008. She is a Post-Doctoral Research fellow in FORTH/ICE-HT since 2008. She has a large teaching experience in the Department of Materials Science and the Chemical Engineering Department. Her scientific expertise and research activities are focused in the field of materials synthesis, characterization and application on environmental/energy related reactions and the development of energy devices based on fuel cells. She has participated in the preparation, submission, execution, report & management in several research projects financed either by the Greek Ministry of Development or EC. She is serving as a Reviewer in Peer Review Journals. Dr. Joan Papavasiliou is the author/ co-author in 33 publications in scientific international journals and her scientific work has received more than 1300 citations from the research community (h index: 17).


Dr George Syrrokostas is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences in Patras, Greece. He studied Physics at the University of Patras and was awarded the BSc degree in 2005 (8.01/10). He carried out postgraduate studies also at University of Patras in the field of dye sensitized solar cells and photo-electrochromic devices. He received the MSc degree in Applied Physics (8.78/10) in 2008. In 2013 he received the PhD degree in Applied Physics. His research activity has led to the publication of 17 papers in refereed international journals, 11 contributions to international conferences and 10 to national conferences. He has about 350 citations (H-index 10). The main areas of his research activities are: (i) deposition and characterization of nanostructured thin films, (ii) electrochemical properties of materials, (iii) dye sensitized and perovskite solar cells, and (iv) photo-electrochromic devices.


I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Dimitris Kardassis (IMBB-FORTH) working on the role of the nuclear receptor HNF4α in lipid metabolism. My work so far, reveals new targets of HNF4α involved in High-density lipoproteins (HDL) metabolism and the development of steatosis and enriches our knowledge on HDL functionality in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). During my first postdoc in the lab of Prof. Vasso Episkopou (Imperial College London) I investigated the role of a newly identified ubiquitin ligase, Arkadia2C, in motor axon growth. The work was published in PLosBiology in 2013, revealing an involvement of BMP-Smad signaling in motor axon advancement. During my PhD in the lab of Prof. Dimitris Kardassis (IMBB-FORTH), I studied the transcriptional regulation of ABCA1, a membrane transporter of cholesterol and phospholipids, which plays important role in reverse cholesterol transport and protection from atherosclerosis (Biochemistry. 2007 Oct 16;46(41):11473-83, Biochim Biophys Acta. 2014 Jun;1839(6):526-36). I am a member of the European and Hellenic Atherosclerosis Society and of the Hellenic Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and have presented my work in many national and international conferences.


Grigorios Tsaknakis is a Post-Doctoral research fellow at IMBB-FORTH. He received his PhD from the University of Oxford in 2009. His research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of transcription factor functions in hematopoiesis using murine erythropoiesis as a model system, especially in the context of chromatin architecture reorganization. He has published 11 peer-reviewed scientific articles and reviews, as shown in Pubmed, with 532 citations and h-index: 11.


Dr. Emmanouil Glynos is a Stavros Niarchos Research Fellow at FORTH/IESL. He received his PhD in 2007 in polymer physics at the University of Edinburgh. Until 2012, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Michigan and in 2013 he was appointed as a Research Investigator at the University of Michigan. The main objective of his current research is to develop a fundamental understanding of, and controlling, the structure and properties of nanostructured soft-materials that can be used as solid electrolytes in lithium-metal batteries and as active layers in organic photovoltaics. He has published 35 papers in referred international journals, 1 book chapter and 6 in Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings and since October 6, 2017 his work has received 639 citations with an h-index of 17. His work has been presented in more than 50 times through invited talk and presentations in Conferences and Colloquia.


Dr. Konstantinos Tzirakis is a Post-Doctoral research fellow at the In- stitute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Foundations for Research and Technology – Hellas (IACM-FORTH). He received his Ph.D. degree from the University at Buffalo in 2009. His research focuses on the development of appropriate computational tools for the study of various biological processes and on non-Newtonian rheology.


Dr. Petra Bacova is a Post-Doctoral research fellow at IACM-FORTH, involved in a project focused on nanostructured materials with application in energy. She received her Ph.D degree from the University of the Basque Country in 2014 under the framework of Marie Curie ITN Dynacop. She worked as a Post-Doctoral fellow at FORTH in Crete and Materials Physics Center in San Sebastian. Her research interests include simulations of all types of polymeric materials.


Dr. Panos Sapountzis is a Post-Doctoral research fellow at the Inst. of Applied & Computational Mathematics. He received his Ph.D from the University of Nottingham in 2010. His research focuses on the study of neural mechanisms and interactions during visual attention. Moreover, he is interested in examining the neural code at the population level using signal processing and machine learning approaches.


Dr. Nikolaos Psonis is a Post-Doctoral research fellow at the Ancient DNA Lab (IMBB-ITE). He received his Ph.D degree in Biology from the University of Crete in 2017. His research focuses on Evolutionary Biology and more precisely on Molecular Phylogeny, Phylogeography and Population Genetics, as well as on Paleogenomics.


Dr. Konstantina Psatha is a biology major postdoctoral researcher in the group of Functional Proteomics & Systems Biology of Dr. M. Aivaliotis at IMBB-FORTH. She received her Ph.D from the Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Athens (NKUA) in 2015. She has a background on systems biology approaches, combining biochemistry, molecular biology and omics strategies, investigating the molecular basis of haematologic malignancies & human diseases, using mouse models, cell lines and biological fluids. She has published peer-reviewed articles, participated in many national and international conferences, and has been awarded several fellowships and prizes (Heraklitus II, IKY-Siemens, EuPA Young Researcher, HSBMB) for her work on integrating omics analyses for the assessment of the multilayered & dynamic regulation of human diseases.