Dr. Elias Chatzitheodoridis

https://www.eliasch.gr/

Dr Elias Chatzitheodoridis is Professor of Mineralogy-Petrology at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), and Director of the Laboratory of Mineralogy-Petrology-Economic Geology. He studied Geology at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and acquired his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Manchester, UK. He worked at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) in Heraklion, Crete, at the Technical University of Vienna (TUWien), and at the high-tech private company Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik AG (AT&S AG) at Leoben-Hinterberg, Austria.

His research interests are in astrochemistry, astrobiology, and planetary sciences. He has also a strong applied research background on photonic technologies, micro- and nanotechnologies, lithography, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), and on the development of analytical instruments. He is President of the ‘Stellar Discoveries’ organisation, CEO of the ‘Network of Researchers on the Chemical Evolution of Life’ (NoRCEL), Vice President of the Apeiron Centre, and Council Member of the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA). He has published more than a hundred peer reviewed scientific and technological papers, and he organised conferences in astrobiology and planetary sciences.

He participated in a microgravity experiment through an ESA mission to the International Space Station (ISS) sending microorganisms to space, while now he runs an ESA project on developing an instrument to detect free chemical radicals on the Lunar and Martian surface. He is currently co-directing a working group of ESA’s ARIEL mission that will investigate exoplanet atmospheres, while he participates in a research group to investigate organics in a newly returned sample from the Ryugu asteroid, through the Hayabusa II Japanese mission. He is in the editorial board of the Astrobiology journal, and has reviewed many articles in several journals. He is often appointed by the European Commission and other National Organisations to review and evaluate many technological and space projects..