Student

Student

Rodríguez-Sacristán

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Education

Alejandra is from Sevilla, Spain and she is 22 years old. She lived and studied in Sevilla until 2021 and then moved to Groningen, the Netherlands to study a bachelor's in Physics at the University of Groningen. She followed the theoretical particle physics track and graduated in the summer of 2025. In september 2025 I started the MCs Advanced physics program at the University of Crete. 

Career

She is following the theoretical high energy physics and cosmology track and started her masters thesis under the supervision of professor Achilleas Porfyriadis.

Interests

Interested in high energy theoretical physics, cosmology, gravity and quantum field theory.

Email
Affiliation
Name
Alejandra
Supervisor
A. Porfyriadis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
On
Starting Month
12

Tsaraktsidis

GeorgiosTsaraktsidis
Education

Georgios Tsaraktsidis graduated from the 1st High School of Komotini in 2022 with a grade of 19/20 ('Excellent'). In the same year he started his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

In the summer of 2024 he joined Prof. Achilleas Porfyriadis's research group when he started working on the analytical study of dynamical extreme black holes.

Interests

Theoretical gravitational and high energy physics

Email
Affiliation
Name
Georgios
Supervisor
Porfyriadis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2024
Female
Off
Starting Month
9

Parvantoni

MelpomeniParvantoni
Education

Melpomeni Parvantoni graduated from the 4th General Lyceum of Marousi with a grade of 19.4 (Excellent) in 2021 and continued her undergraduate studies at the Department of Physics of the University of Crete.

Career

In the summer of 2025, she began researching Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) under the supervision of Dr. Tanio Diaz Santos. In addition, she completed an internship in the summer of 2025 at the Institute of Astrophysics of FORTH under the supervision of Dr. Andreas Zezas on the study of galaxy spectra.

Interests

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), Black Holes and their evolution, Binary Star Systems, Dark Matter.

Email
Affiliation
Name
Melpomeni
Supervisor
Diaz Santos
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
On
Starting Month
6

Simosi

KonstantinaSimosi
Education

Konstantina Simosi earned a BSc in Physics with a specialization in Astrophysics, Astronomy, and Mechanics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2024. In September 2025, she began her graduate studies at the University of Crete.

Career

Konstantina Simosi conducted part of her undergraduate thesis research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, through the Mitacs Globalink Research Award, which she received in 2022. In 2024, she received a distinction for her academic performance upon graduation.  For her MSc thesis she will be working under Dr. Tanio Diaz Santos.

Interests

Extragalactic astrophysics, high-redshift galaxies, interstellar medium, circumgalactic medium, galaxy evolution, radio astronomy

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Konstantina
Supervisor
Diaz Santos
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
On
Starting Month
12

Bellas

MichalisBellas
Education

Michalis Bellas graduated from the 2nd General High School of Metamorfosi (Athens) in 2022 with a grade of 18.9/20 ('Excellent'). The same year, he began his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

In September 2024 and 2025, he volunteered at "Researcher's Night at FORTH".  In November 2025, he joined the Institute of Astrophysics (IA) at FORTH when he began working on his bachelor's thesis on the topic of the Interstellar Medium (ISM) in compact Luminous and Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs), under the supervision of Dr. Tanio Diaz-Santos.

Interests

Properties of the ISM, star-formation, exoplanets and planetary systems

Email
Affiliation
Name
Michalis
Supervisor
Diaz Santos
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
Off
Starting Month
11

Pyrovolakis

ChristosPyrovolakis
Education

Pyrovolakis Christos graduated from Souda High School of Chania in 2022 with a final grade of 19.1/20 ( Excellent ). The same year, he began his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

In November 2025, he joined the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH when he started working on his senior thesis on the topic of Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) under the supervision of Dr. Ioannis Liodakis.

Interests

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs), active galactic nuclei (AGNs), accretion disks, tidal disruption events (TDEs), star formation.

Email
Affiliation
Name
Christos
Supervisor
Liodakis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
Off
Starting Month
11

Charalampidou

Person default image
Education

Maria-Georgia Charalampidou graduated from the 3rd General High School of Kifisia in 2024 with a grade of 19.6/20 ("Excellent"). The same year, she commenced her undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

In 2025, she joined the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH as a member of Dr. Ioannis Liodakis’ team.

Interests

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), Blazars, Supermassive Black Holes, Extragalactic Objects

Email
Affiliation
Name
Maria-Georgia
Supervisor
Liodakis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
On
Starting Month
10

Rompogiannakis

DimitriosRompogiannakis
Education

Dimitrios Rompogiannakis graduated from the 3rd High School of Heraklion in 2014 with a grade of 17.8/20 (‘Very Good’). In the same year he started his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete. He graduated in the fall of 2025 and he commenced his MSc in Advanced Physics.

Career

In 2024 he joined the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH when he started working on the topic of Expansion of Extragalactic Catalogues under the supervision of Prof. Andreas Zezas.

Interests

Extragalactic astrophysics, Galaxy Catalogues, Galaxy Characterisation, Applications to Multimessenger Astrophysics

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Dimitrios
Supervisor
Zezas
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Departure Date
Female
Off
Starting Month
9

Belgiovine

NicoloBelgiovine
Education

Nicolò Belgiovine obtained his bachelor’s degree in Astronomy in 2021 at the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy. In the same year he started, at the same institution, the MSc program in Astrophysics and Cosmology, completed in 2025. As of September 20205 he is  a Ph.D. student at the Physics Department of the Univ. of Crete under the supervision of Prof. I. Papadakis.

Career

During his last year of his undergraduate studies he worked on the hierarchical formation of intermediate mass black holes in globular clusters. During his master’s degree he developed an interest in accretion phenomena through X-ray observations and took part in an exchange program at the University of Groningen where he worked on the variability and phase-lags analysis of X-ray photons in low-mass X-ray binaries. His Ph.D. project focuses on the study of X-ray reverberation and time-lags in AGNs.

Interests

X-ray, AGN, high energy astrophysics, accretion processes, time and phase lags.

Email
Office
232 Physics Bldg
Telephone
(+30) 2810 39-4239
Affiliation
Name
Nicolo
Supervisor
Papadakis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
Off
Starting Month
9