Student

Student

Vervelaki

Vervelaki
Education

Anna Vervelaki graduated from the 11nth High School of Heraklion in 2019 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 2022 she completed her internship at Skinakas Observatory. At the beginning of the academic year she started working on her senior thesis regarding a binary system composed of a millisecond pulsar and a white dwarf companion under the supervision of Dr. John Antoniadis.

Interests

Observational Astrophysics, Binary stellar systems, Supernovae, Compact Objects, Galaxies

Email
Affiliation
Name
Anna
Supervisor
Antoniadis
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Bonn (Germany) - MSc student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Ending Year
2024
Departure Date
Female
On

Falalaki

Falalaki
Education

Myrto Falalaki graduated from the 3rd High School of Komotini in 2021 with a grade of 19.8/20 ('Excellent'). The same year she started her undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete.

Career

During her senior high school years she participated in various mathematical contests of the Greek Mathematical Society and she was awarded the "Euclides" prize twice and the "Thales" prize three times. In October of 2022 she joined the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH. She is currently working on topics related to high-energy cosmic rays under the supervision of Prof. Pavlidou and Prof. Tassis. She was awarded the 2023 George Grammatikakis prize for her academic performance.

Interests

High energy astrophysics, cosmic rays, galactic magnetic fields

Email
Affiliation
Name
Myrto
Supervisor
Tassis, Pavlidou
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Crete & IA-FORTH (Greece) - MSc student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Ending Year
2025
Departure Date
Female
On
Title of Dissertation
What can cosmic-ray knees reveal about source populations

Falalaki

Falalaki
Education

Myrto Falalaki graduated from the 3rd High School of Komotini in 2021 with a grade of 19.8/20 ('Excellent'). The same year she started her undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete. She graduated in July 2025 at the top of her class (GPA 9.55 out of 10) and commenced her MSc in Advanced Physics at the University of Crete.

Career

During her senior high school years she participated in various mathematical contests of the Greek Mathematical Society and she was awarded the "Euclides" prize twice and the "Thales" prize three times. In October of 2022 she joined the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH. She is currently working on topics related to high-energy cosmic rays under the supervision of Prof. Pavlidou and Prof. Tassis. For her academic performance she was awarded the 2023 George Grammatikakis prize, as well as the 2025 Eleftherios Economou prize for best academic performance.

Interests

High energy astrophysics, cosmic rays, galactic magnetic fields

Email
Office
232 Physics Bldg
Telephone
(+30) 2810 39-4228
Affiliation
Name
Myrto
Supervisor
Tassis, Pavlidou
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2025
Female
On
Starting Month
9

Álvarez-Ortega

Alvarez
Education

Diego Álvarez Ortega obtained his BSc in Physics at the Universidad de Valladolid (Spain) in 2021. He obtained his MSc in Particle Physics and Physics of the Cosmos at Universidad de Cantabria (Spain) in 2022.

Career

In 2021 he was awarded with a JAE Intro SOMdM scholarship to complete his master thesis “On the inpainting of incomplete CMB sky maps” at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA). Since December 2022 he is a PhD student at the University of Crete and IA-FORTH under the supervision of Dr. Carolina Casadio.

Interests

Active galactic nuclei; Radio and mm-VLBI; Cosmology; Extragalactic Astrophysics

Email
Office
230 Physics Bldg
Telephone
(+30) 2810 39-4256
Affiliation
Name
Diego
Supervisor
Casadio
Past Member
Off
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Female
Off
Starting Month
12

Kyvernitaki-Synani

Kyvernitaki
Education

Anna Kyvernitaki - Synani obtained her BSc in Physics at the University of Crete in 2022 and joined the MSc program of Advanced Physics.

Career

Since 2022, under the supervision of Prof. Vasiliki Pavlidou, she is working on the dependence of the turnaround density of galaxy clusters on the cosmological model.

Interests

Astrophysics, Cosmology, Cosmological models and structure formation

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Anna
Supervisor
Pavlidou
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Crete & IA-FORTH (Greece) - PhD student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Ending Year
2023
Departure Date
Female
On

Tersenov

Tersenov
Education

Andreas Tersenov graduated from the 8th High School of Heraklion in 2018. The same year he started his undergraduate studies in the Physics Department of the University of Crete. He graduated in 2022 and joined the Advanced Physics MSc program of the Department.

Career

During his undergraduate studies, he completed his senior thesis entitled “Cosmic-ray air-shower simulations across the ankle: Combining mixed Galactic composition with new physics above 50 TeV”, under the supervision of Prof. V. Pavlidou and PhD candidate Stylianos Romanopoulos. Since 2021, he is also working with Professor Elias Kiritsis on a project on “Holographic RG flows on deformed 3-sphere”.

Interests

High Energy Astrophysics, Cosmic Rays, Cosmology, Gravitational Physics, AdS/CFT, Holographic RG Flows.

Email
Office
108 Physics Bldg
Telephone
(+30) 2810 39-4166
Affiliation
Name
Andreas
Supervisor
Pavlidou
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Univ. of Crete & IA-FORTH (Greece) - PhD student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Ending Year
2023
Departure Date
Female
Off

Triantafyllou

Triantafyllou
Education

Nikolaos Triantafyllou graduated from the 8th high school of Heraklion with a grade of 19.6/20 (‘Excellent’). In 2018, he joined, as  an undergraduate student the Dept. of Physics of the University of Crete. He graduated in 2022 and was admitted in the MSc program of Advanced Physics.

Career

Since 2021, under the supervision of Prof. Vasiliki Pavlidou, he is using machine learning methods to detect the turnaround radius of galaxy clusters.

Interests

Cosmology, Astrophysics, Machine learning methods in Astrophysics

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Nikolaos
Supervisor
Pavlidou
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy) - PhD student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Ending Year
2023
Departure Date
Female
Off

Papoutsis

Papoutsis
Education

Marios Papoutsis graduated from Skipero's highschool in Corfu with grade 19.6/20 (‘Excellent’). In 2018, he joined as an undergraduate student the Dept. of Physics of the University of Crete. He graduated in 2022 and was admitted in the Advanced Physics MSc program.
 

Career

During his undergraduate studies, he completed his senior thesis entitled "The energy spectrum of accretion discs in AGN" under the supervision of Prof. I. Papadakis. He is currently working on his master thesis, which extends the previous work to include relativistic effects in accretion discs.

Interests

Active Galactic Nuclei, Accretion Discs, Machine learning methods

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Marios
Supervisor
Papadakis
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Crete & IESL/FORTH - PhD student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Ending Year
2023
Departure Date
Female
Off

Mastorakis

μαστορακης
Education

Michalis Mastorakis graduated from the Neas Kydonias' high school that is located in Kato Daratsos, Chania in 2018. The same year he started his undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete. He graduated in 2022 and joined the Advanced Physics MSc program of the Department.
 

Career

In September 2021 he started working on his senior thesis under the supervision of Professor Vasiliki Pavlidou and her graduate student Stelios Romanopoulos on Backtracking of ultra-high-energy cosmic-rays through the Galaxy’s magnetic field in order to determine their sources and their composition. 

Interests

Cosmology, Theoretical Astrophysics, High Energy Astrophysics, Neutron Stars

Email
Office
308 Physics Bldg
Affiliation
Name
Michalis
Supervisor
Antoniadis
Past Member
On
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2022
Ending Year
2023
Departure Date
Female
Off

Vasilaki

Person default image
Email
Office
Sorbonne Univ., Paris, France
Affiliation
Name
Christiana
Supervisor
Petraki, Pavlidou
Past Member
On
Moved to Institute
Sorbonne Univ., Paris, France - PhD student
Student Category
Director
Off
Starting Year
2021
Ending Year
2022
Departure Date
Female
On