Student

Student

Vasilas

NikolasVasilas
Education

Nikolas Vasilas graduated from the 2nd High School of Heraklion, Crete, in 2020 with a grade of 19.9/20 ("Excellent"). The same year, he began his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete. In July 2024, he graduated, and in September of the same year, he started his Master’s in “Advanced Physics” at the Department of Physics at the University of Crete, with a concentration in “Astrophysics and Space Physics”.

Career

2016, he and his school’s science team participated in the ESA “ASTRO PI” competition, advancing to the next phases with two projects. In the summer of 2022, he began his bachelor’s thesis titled “Diagnostics for Compact Object Types in Extragalactic X-ray Binaries” under the supervision of Professor A. Zezas, in which he studied X-ray binaries using machine learning techniques and algorithms. He presented it in July 2024. That same summer, he was accepted to and attended the 2022 Summer School of Astrostatistics in Crete. In the summer of 2023, he completed an internship at JADBio – Gnosis DA as a junior data scientist. In the summer of 2024, he undertook an Erasmus+ internship at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. Under the supervision of Dr. Johannes Buchner, he applied simulation-based inference on eROSITA surveys of quasars and their host galaxies. At the end of this internship, he presented a poster at the “First Results from the SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: From Stars to Cosmology” conference.

Interests

X-ray Binaries, Compact Objects, Machine Learning, Galactic and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Accretion Disks.

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Nikolas
Supervisor
Zezas
Past Member
Off
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Crete & IA-FORTH (Greece) - MSc student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2024
Departure Date
Female
Off

Polioudakis

MichailPolioudakis
Education

Michail Polioudakis graduated from the Experimental High School of the University of Crete in Rethymno in 2019. The same year he started his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete. He graduated in 2024 and joined the postgraduate programm "Advanced Physics" at the university of Crete in the fall of the same year.

Career

In February of 2024, he started working on his senior thesis under the supervision of Prof. Iossif Papadakis, titled "Study of the temperature radial dependence in X-ray illuminated accretion discs".

Interests

Cosmology, Active Galactic Nuclei, Theoretical Astrophysics, Extragalactic Astrophysics

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Michail
Supervisor
Papadakis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2024
Female
Off

Polioudakis

MichailPolioudakis
Education

Michail Polioudakis graduated from the Experimental High School of the University of Crete in Rethymno in 2019. The same year he started his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

In February of 2024, he started working on his senior thesis under the supervision of Prof. Iossif Papadakis, titled "Study of the temperature radial dependence in X-ray illuminated accretion discs".

Interests

Cosmology, Active Galactic Nuclei, Theoretical Astrophysics, Extragalactic Astrophysics

Email
Affiliation
Name
Michail
Supervisor
Papadakis
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Crete & IA-FORTH (Greece) - MSc student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2024
Ending Year
2024
Departure Date
Female
Off

Diamantopoulos

VasilisDiamantopoulos
Education

Vasilis Diamantopoulos received his High School Diploma from the 8th General High School of Peristeri in 2018. In the same year he began his studies in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete. In September of 2024 he was accepted in the M.Sc. programme “Advanced Physics” in the same department, with specialisation in “Astrophysics and Space Physics”.

Career

In 2024 he started working on his bachelor’s thesis titled  “X-ray Variability Studies of NGC 4051” under the supervision of professor Iossif Papadakis, which he presented in October of the same year.

Interests

His interests include Extragalactic Astronomy, Active Galactic Nuclei, Gravitational Lensing, Observational Cosmology and the teaching of Physics laboratories.

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Vasilis
Supervisor
Papadakis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2024
Female
Off

Papagiannopoulou

NataliaPapagiannopoulou
Education

Natalia Papagiannopoulou graduated from the General High School of Astros in 2018 with a grade of 19.4/20 ("Excellent"). The same year she started her undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

In 2023 she joined the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH, when she started working on her senior thesis studying the timing and spectral variability of Be/X-ray binaries under the supervision of Dr. Pablo Reig.

Interests

X-ray Astronomy, Be/X-ray binaries, Black holes

Email
Affiliation
Name
Natalia
Supervisor
Reig
Past Member
On
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2023
Ending Year
2024
Departure Date
Female
On

Koutsiona

EleniKoutsiona
Education

Eleni Koutsiona graduated from the 27th High School of Thessaloniki in 2018 with a grade of 19.7/20 ('Excellent'). In the same year she started her undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

In the summer of 2023 she completed her internship at Skinakas Observatory. At the beginning of the academic year she started working on her senior thesis which is centered around the spatially resolved dust attenuation in Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs). Throughout autumn of 2023 she worked on supernovae and transient astronomy at the University of Kyoto and Okayama Observatory.

Interests

Observational Astrophysics, Interstellar Medium, LIRGs, Supernovae, Machine Learning, Remote Sensing

Email
Affiliation
Name
Eleni
Supervisor
Diaz Santos
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Heidelberg, Germany - MSc student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2023
Ending Year
2024
Departure Date
Female
On

Kontopodis

Kontopodis Evangelos
Education

Evangelos Kontopodis graduated from the 1st High School of Ierapetra in 2019 with a grade of 18.7/20. In the same year, he started his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete. He completed his undergraduate studies in 2024 and he started his graduate studies in "Advanced Physics" at the University of Crete.

Career

In the summer of 2022, he completed his internship at Skinakas Observatory and the following summer worked there voluntarily. In the fall of 2023, he started working on his senior thesis studying the long term optical variability of Be/X-ray binaries under the supervision of Dr. Reig, which completed in the autumn of 2024. Afterwards, he started working on his thesis studying secondary standard stars in the field of view of Be/X-ray binary systems, again under the supervision of Dr. Reig.

Interests

Observational Astrophysics, Binary Stellar Systems, Quasars, Blazars

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Evangelos
Supervisor
Reig
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2024
Female
Off

Kontopodis

Kontopodis Evangelos
Education

Evangelos Kontopodis graduated from the 1st High School of Ierapetra in 2019 with a grade of 18.7/20. In the same year, he started his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete.

Career

In the summer of 2022, he completed his internship at Skinakas Observatory and the following summer worked there voluntarily. In the fall of 2023, he started working on his senior thesis studying the long term optical variability of Be/X-ray binaries under the supervision of Dr.Reig.

Interests

Observational Astrophysics, Binary Stellar Systems, Quasars

Email
Affiliation
Name
Evangelos
Supervisor
Reig
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Crete & IA-FORTH (Greece) - MSc student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2023
Ending Year
2024
Departure Date
Female
Off

Gorbatchev

PaulineGorbatchev
Education

Pauline Gorbatchev studied at the University of Geneva, where she received her Bachelor in Physics in 2021 and her Master's degree in Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics in 2023. From January of 2024 she will be a PhD student at the University of Crete, under the supervision of Prof. J.L. Starck,  and Prof. S. Camera, while her University of Crete faculty liaison is Prof. V. Pavlidou.

Career

During her Master's Thesis « Impact of the distortion of time on the galaxy angular power spectrum » she worked on forecasting the signal to noise ratio for the SKA experiment by considering the observation of two different populations of galaxies (bright and faint), with the goal of testing General Relativity at large scales of the Universe, under the supervision of Prof. C. Bonvin and Sveva Castello at the University of Geneva. 

During her PhD studies, she will work on « Higher-order statistics for neutral hydrogen intensity mapping » as a member of the TITAN project.

Interests

Cosmology, Large Scale Structures and Galaxies distribution throughout the Universe.

Email
Office
108β Physics Bldg
Telephone
(+30) 2810 39-4166
Affiliation
Name
Pauline
Supervisor
Starck, Pavlidou
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2024
Female
On

Kyvernitaki-Synani

Anna
Education

Anna Kyvernitaki - Synani obtained her BSc in Physics at the University of Crete in 2022 and her MSc in Advanced Physics from the same University in 2023. She commenced her PhD in November 2023, under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Readhead. Her University of Crete faculty liaison is Prof. Kostas Tassis

Career

For her PhD studies, she is using radio observations to study compact symmetric objects and supermassive black hole binaries. She is also a member of the PASIPHAE Collaboration, working on the mapping of the galactic magnetic field. Her research interests also include cosmological structure formation.

Interests

Active Galactic Nuclei, Compact Symmetric Objects, Supermassive black hole binaries, Polarimetry, Galactic magnetic field, Cosmological models and structure formation

Email
Office
105β Physics Bldg
Telephone
(+30) 2810 39-4169
Affiliation
Name
Anna
Supervisor
Readhead, Tassis
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2023
Female
On