Katerina Aifantis

Short Bio:

Katerina E. Aifantis began her research with US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and obtained her Master's from the University of Cambridge and her PhD from the University of Groningen at the age of 21, becoming the youngest PhD holder in the history of The Netherlands. In 2008, she became the youngest recipient (at 24) of the European Research Council Grant to set up her on lab at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for studying nanomaterials and their applications in energy and biology. In 2013 she joined the University of Arizona as an associate professor and in 2017 she moved to the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the University of Florida. Through funding from the Basic Energy Sciences Office of the Department of Energy she tries to understand the effect of interfaces in materials behavior. In addition to basic science questions, she uses her theoretical and experimental insight into the materials mechanical behavior to predict the most promising materials systems that can be used in various applications, ranging from next generation electrodes for Li-ion batteries, to bone regeneration scaffolds and bioacompatible electrodes for deep brain stimulation.