I was born in Athens (Greece, not Georgia) on the 15th of April 1970. I spent almost all my school years in an Hellenic-American establishment called Athens College. After having finished high-school in 1988, I entered the Physics Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. During my third year of undergraduate studies, I was attributed an individual Erasmus-Free Movers EU fellowship for a traineeship with subject "Deviation d'un faisceau LASER par moyens acoustiques", in the Laboratory of Applied Physics of the Ecole Centrale in Paris, France. On July 1992, and after having effectuated a diploma thesis on "Non-linear analysis of wave equations presenting soliton solutions" in the Electronics laboratory of my department, I graduated with a degree in Physics.
On October 1992, I was accepted in the Physics Department of the Université Paris VII (Dennis-Diderot), preparing the D.E.A. (Master of Science) in "Astrophysique et Techniques Spatiales". The courses were mostly held at Meudon's Observatory. My Master's thesis subject was focused on non-linear dynamics methods applied in astrophysics which I finished on July 1993 under the supervision of Dr. Jacques Laskar in the research group of Astronomy and Dynamical Systems of the Bureau des Longitudes. In the Fall of 1993, I started a PhD thesis supervised by Jacques, with a research fellowship from the French Ministry of Education and Research (MRE). The subject was the application of powerful non-linear dynamics techniques for the understanding of the three-dimensional dynamics of galaxies. I successfully defended my thesis entitled "Application de la méthode d'analyse en fréquence en dynamique galactique" on January 1997 in the Observatory of Paris.
On October 1997 and after an 8-month post-doctoral EU fellowship at the Legnaro National Laboratory of the Istituto Nazionale di Physica Nucleare (INFN), I was accepted as a post-doctoral fellow in the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, mostly known as CERN, in Geneva. Interestingly enough, the same non-linear dynamics methods developed in astronomy can be applied for studying the dynamics of particle accelerators. I spent more than 2 years in the Accelerator Physics group of the SPS-LEP division, where I worked on non-linear beam dynamics studies for the design of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), including the detrimental effect of magnet errors, the efficiency of magnet correction schemes and the dynamics of the beam-beam effect. I also participated in experimental beam studies in SPS and LEP.
On January 2000, I moved to the USA, where I started working as a research assistant and then staff physicist, in the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton NY, in the Accelerator physics group designing the Spallation Neutron Source accumulator ring, built at Oak-Ridge National Laboratory. My first working task was the resonance analysis and correction of non-linear magnet effects (mainly due to their fringe-fields) in the SNS accumulator ring. On September 2000, I became the ring physics team leader, assuring the link between engineers and physicists regarding SNS magnetic and power supply design issues and the ring commissioning preparation.
On July 2002, and after a 2-months service in the Greek armed forces, I accepted an offer as a Staff physicist in the Theory group of the Machine division at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). My work was mostly concentrated on experimental studies for the understanding and improvement of the performance of the ESRF storage ring. On February 2003, I became the ESRF booster synchrotron coordinator, regarding beam physics, performance and operation. I continued my collaboration with CERN colleagues on the beam-beam long range wire correction, in theory and experiments at the SPS. During 2004-2005, I participated in a task force for the upgrade of the ESRF storage ring, with the responsibility of designing a sub-nanometer emittance lattice using variable field dipoles.
On October 2005, I moved back as a staff physicist at CERN to work with my old colleagues of the LHC Optics and Commissioning (now LHC commissioning and upgrade - LCU) section, of the Accelerator and Beam Physics (ABP) group, in the Accelerator and Beams (now Beams - BE) department, on LHC Short Straight Section magnet sorting, geometry qualification and follow up.
On January 2007, I moved to the section of the LHC Injector Synchrotrons (LIS) of the ABP group, with main task the CERN PS machine supervision, a duty which I carried until August 2011. I also contributed to the studies for the replacement of the PS machine with a new ring (PS2), with responsibility the PS2 lattice design, and in particular the optics of Negative Momentum Compaction lattices.
Part of my time is devoted to the design of the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), serving as the CLIC damping rings area coordinator. Since November 2008, I co-chaired the ILC-CLIC collaboration working group on damping rings.
In 2010, I proposed new optics for the Super Proton Synchrotron, for lowering the transition energy and breaking the brightness limitations of the LHC beams, which was successfully tested in a series of MDs during 2010-2011. Since September 2011, I became SPS machine coordinator. In September 2012, the new SPS optics (also known as Q20) became operational for delivering the LHC proton and ion beam during the rest of the run, with a direct increase of 20% in brightness in the LHC flat bottom.
In 2011, I became member of the EU Test Infrastructure and Accelerator Research Area (TIARA) preparatory phase steering committee, leading the working package 6 on SLS Vertical Emittance Tuning (SVET).
In 2013, I became member of the EUCARD2 steering committee leading the working package 6 network on Low Emittance Rings.
In 2014, the ABP group was reorganised and I became a member of the Lepton Accelerators and Test Facilities (LAT) section. Since this year, I shifted my activities towards the LHC, and in 2015 I started chairing the working group on Beam-beam effects and luminosity. In 2016, I was appointed as leader of the Hadron Synchrotron Incoherent effects section of the ABP group, which I lead until end of 2020. In 2021, I had the honour and privilege to be appointed as leader of the Accelerator and Beam Physics group.
More information on my research can by found in my CV and my publications' list.