Alexandros Lappas received a B.Sc. in Physics (1988) from the University of Crete and a D.Phil. in Chemical Physics (1993) from the School of Chemistry & Molecular Sciences at the Univ. of Sussex, UK. During 1993-95, as a Research Fellow in the Inorganic & Solid State Chemistry division of Sussex University, he became interested in the field of fullerene-based magnets & superconductors. After his compulsory military service (1996-97) in Greece, he moved back to Sussex as a Temporary Lecturer (Inorganic & Physical Chemistry curriculum). He was elected to a tenure-track Researcher (1999) in Materials Science at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser in FORTH, where he is presently a Director of Research (equivalent to a University Professor position). In parallel, Dr Lappas has taught materials physics courses, as an Adjunct Professor in the Univ. of Crete. As a Visiting Researcher and principal investigator, he has been working at world renowned large-scale synchrotron X-ray (Brookhaven National Lab), neutron (Rutherford Appleton Lab) and muon (Paul Scherrer Institute) science facilities in USA and Europe for the last 25 years.
His team works in the field of experimental condensed matter physics and materials science, studying electronic phenomena and phase transitions in correlated electron systems and other quantum materials that tackle society’s challenges in energy. He leads the Quantum Materials & Magnetism lab at FORTH. Dr Lappas has initiated and successfuly led a number of international research projects. In addition, he served in posts such as, in conference program committees and a panel member of R&D actions supervised by GSRT. Moreover, he has been the advisor of young scientists that have completed their PhD (5) or MSc (10) research in materials physics/ chemistry, and was honored to be a “Fulbright Fellow – Greece” (2016-17) for lecturing and conducting research in the United States. He has published more than 100 refereed journal articles and disseminated his research through invited lectures (25) and numerous contributed talks (47) at international conferences (h-index= 26; ResearcherID: F-6771-2011).
Education
- 1993, D.Phil., Chemical Physics; School of Chemistry & Molecular Sciences, University of Sussex , UK
- 1988, B.Sc., Physics (upper 2nd class honors); Dept. of Physics, University of Crete, Greece
Career
- 2012– present Research Director (Grade A; open-end); IESL - FORTH, Greece
- 2002 – 2012 Principal Researcher (Grade B; tenure); IESL - FORTH, Greece
- 2005 – 2008 Adjunct Professor; Department of Physics, University of Crete, Greece
- 2001 – 2005 Adjunct Professor; Department of Materials Science and Technology, University of Crete, Greece
- 1998 – 2002 Associated Researcher (Grade C; tenure-track); IESL - FORTH, Greece
- 1997 – 1998 Temporary Lecturer; School of Chemistry, University of Sussex, UK
- 1993 – 1995 Postdoctoral Fellow; School of Chemistry, University of Sussex, UK
Interests
- workings of quantum materials at variable length and time scales by photon & neutron science (structural & spectroscopic) probes
- collective electronic phenomena & symmetry breaking phase transitions (physical crystallography)
- frustration-driven instabilities (order by disorder) in transition metal layered oxides
- intertwined charge carriers & magnetic moments in iron-chalcogenides
- smart energy-materials’ solutions for grid technologies (cf. superconductors & battery materials)
- colloidal nanocrystals with size-, shape-, assembly- enhanced functionality (cf. theranostics)
Awards/Prizes/Distinctions
- 2018: Presented with the “Gold Medal of the City” of Xanthi, as a City ambassador in sciences and environment; Municipality of Xanthi, Greece
- 2016: Recipient of a “Fulbright Visiting Scholars Award”, Fulbright Foundation, Athens, Greece
- 2015: Recipient of a “Chaire TOTAL - Pôle Chimie Balard”, Fondation Balard, Montpellier, France
- 2003: Visiting Fellowship at Kyoto University; YAMADA Science Foundation, Osaka, Japan
- 2000: Award for Scientific Research at IESL-FORTH; EBEIRIKIO Foundation, Athens, Greece
- 1990 – 1993: Research Bursary, BRITE-EURAM Programme on Advanced Materials; Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, Belgium
- 1989 – 1992: Research Studentship (Quota Award); Science and Engineering Research Council, UK
- 1983 – 1984: Prize for excellence in Physics, University of Crete; State Scholarships Foundation – IKY, Greece
RETIRED
Education
- 2009, Ph.D., Physics department, University of Crete, Greece
- 2004, M.Sc., Physics department, University of Crete, Greece
- 2001, B.Sc., Physics department, University of Crete, Greece
Career
- 12/2016 - today, Post Doctoral Researcher, Microelectronics Research Group (MRG), FORTH - IESL, Greece
- 10/2015 - 11/2016, Research associate, Physics Dpt, University of Crete, Greece
- 02/2010-09/2015, Research associate, Microelectronics Research Group (MRG), FORTH - IESL, Greece
Interests
- III-Nitride wide band gap semiconductors
- Molecular Beam Epitaxy growth of III-Nitrides
- III-nitride based Heterostructures and Nanostructures for Electronic and Optoelectronic applications
- PERSONAL INFORMATION
Family Name, First Name : Tzallas Paraskevas
Researcher unique identifier: Paraskevas Tzallas on Google Scholar
Date of birth : Grevena-Greece, Feb. 4, 1974.
Nationality: Hellenic
Office address : Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (FORTH-IESL), N. Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton, 70013, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, Tel.: +30-81-391127, Fax: +30-81-391305, e-mail: ptzallas@iesl.forth.gr
- CURRENT POSITION (S)
2017-now: Research Director (Researcher A')
2014-now: Senior Research fellow and Scientific Advisor at Extreme Light Infrastructure-Attosecond Light Pulse Source (ELI-ALPS), Szeged, Hungary
- PREVIOUS POSITIONS
2002-2004: Post-Doc in MAX-PlANCK-INSTITUT FÜR QUANTENOPTIK in Garching (Germany)
2004-2017: Researcher D', Researcher C' and Principal Researcher (Researcher B') at FORTH-IESL
2018-2020: Board member of the scientific council of FORTH-IESL
- EDUCATION: I) 1992 (Oct.)-1996(July): Diploma degree in Physics, Univ. of Ioannina-Greece; 1996 (Oct.)-2002 (Jan.) II) PhD student in AMO Phys. lab. of Department of Phys. of Univ. of Ioannina in close collaboration with Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK).
- CAREER BREAKS (2004): 6 Months military obligation in the Greek Armed Forces. I was acknowledged by the Greek Ministry of National Defence as a Distinguished Scientist of Abroad.
- RESEARCH INTERESTS: Atomic, Molecular and Optical physics (AMO); Attosecond science and strong laser field physics; Quantum Optics in Strong laser field physics
- RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
- First direct observation of attosecond light bursts emitted from gas and sold state media (Nature (2003); Nature Phys. (2009); APL Photonics (2019)).
- First observation of atomic direct double ionization by harmonic superposition (PRA (2006)).
- Generation of intense continuum XUV radiation by multi-cycle laser fields (Nature Phys. (2007)).
- XUV pump-XUV probe studies of 1-fs electron dynamics (PRL (2010); Nature Phys.(2011); PRA (2014))
- Time gated ion microscopy in the XUV spectral range (PRA (2014); Sci. Rep. (2016); J. Opt. (2018)).
- Generation of coherent XUV pulses with the highest ever photon flux (PRA (2018), Sci. Rep. (2020)).
- Linking quantum optics and quantum technologies with strong-laser-field physics: Generation of optical Schrodinger cat states in intense laser-matter interactions (Nature Com.(2017); PRL (2019); Nature Phys. (2021); PRL (2022); PRA (2022)).
- PUBLICATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL REFEREED JOURNALS: 82 published papers, including 1 Nature, 4 Nature Phys., 1 Nature Comm., 7 Phys. Rev. Lett., 1 Physics Reports, 12 Phys. Rev. A, 3 Optica, 1 Opt. Lett., 5 Sci. Rep., 5 New J. Phys., 6 J. Phys. B, 2 Optics Express, 2 Appl. Phys. B, 2 Chem. Phys. Lett., 2 J. Phys. Chem. A e.t.c., 5 chapters in books, and 5 Invited review/perspective articles in international scientific journals with ≈ 3330 citations, h-factor = 32 (database: Google Scholar).
- TALKS IN CONFERENCES/UNIVERSITIES/INSTITUTES: 2 keynote, 41 invited and 15 oral
- REFEREE IN INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS: 1) Nature Photon. 2) Nature Phys. 3) Nature Commun. 4) Phys. Rev. Lett. 5) Phys. Rev. A 6) Optics Letters 6) Sci. Rep. 7) New Journal of Physics 8) Optics Express 9) Journal of Physics B 10) Journal of Quantum Electronics 11) Applied Physics B.
- PROPOSAL REVIEWER: for the Austrian Science Fund funds (FWF), German Research Foundation (DFG), Israeli Higher Education Committee/ Israeli Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC), and European Research Council, ERC Advanced Grant.
- SUPERVISION OF GRDUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS: 4 PostDocs; 6 PhD students; 8 Master Students and 4 Diploma students.
- PRESENT COLLABORATIONS: 1) Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optic (MPQ), Garching, Germany. 2) Institute of Carnot de Bourgogne, Dijon, France. 3) Imperial College, London, UK. 5) Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland. 4) University Autonoma of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. 5) ICFO, Barcelona. 6) ELI-ALPS Hungary.
