George Hadjipanayis, Richard B. Murray Professor of Physics and Astronomy
at the University of Delaware, has been awarded a fellowship by the
Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program to travel to Greece and work with
researchers and graduate students at Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki.
Hadjipanayis, whose research focuses on rare-earth, permanent
magnets, is one of 30 Greek- and Cypriot-born scholars from 28 U.S. and
Canadian universities selected for the fellowship. They will work at 13
universities in Greece, where administrators and faculty members have
submitted proposals for collaborative projects.
The idea is for the work in Greece to be mutually beneficial, said
Hadjipanayis, who will spend two weeks at Aristotle University in
December. Theyre interested in my work with magnets [made] without
critical materials, and Im interested in the work theyre doing on
using magnetic materials for biomedical applications.
Permanent magnets produce a strong magnetic field and can be used in
the production of motors, particularly in such green energy
applications as electric vehicles and wind turbines. They are made today
with rare-earth materials that can be very expensive to obtain, so
scientists like Hadjipanayis are seeking alternate materials.
Two weeks is a limited time, he acknowledged, but its expected to
give a boost to the Greek researchers work and to be the start of
expanded and continuing collaborations, which might also bring
researchers from Greece to the U.S. in the future.
Hadjipanayis plans to spend his time at Aristotle University giving
some lectures and meeting with faculty and graduate students.
He works frequently, often during the summer or UDs Winter Session,
at a research university in Athens. But this program will be his first
collaboration in Thessaloniki, a port city in northern Greece.
Im looking forward to the start of a great collaboration, he said.
The Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program
was launched in 2016 with a goal of helping to avert Greeces brain
drain and develop long-term collaborations between universities there
and in North America.
Scholars selected for the program represent a variety of disciplines
and will work on projects ranging from medical physics and clinical
neurophysiology to modernist poetry and educational psychology. They
will not only conduct research but also help develop curricula and teach
and mentor graduate students in areas identified by the Greek
universities as priorities.
The program is managed by the Institute of International Education in collaboration with the Fulbright Foundation in Greece and is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
More about George Hadjipanayis
Hadjipanayis, who joined the UD faculty in 1989, is a native of
Cyprus who earned his bachelors degree at the University of Athens and
has received numerous awards for his work as a researcher and academic
leader.
He has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society, a
Humboldt fellow, an IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturer and a
recipient of the Francis Alison Award, UDs highest competitive faculty
honor.
He is the author of more than 500 publications in refereed journals
and has given more than 100 invited talks and over 300 seminars and
presentations at meetings and workshops.
In training the next generation of scientists and engineers in the
field of magnetism, with a focus on permanent magnets and magnetic
nanoparticles, he has supervised 24 doctoral students, 10 masters
degree students and more than 20 postdoctoral/research associates who
are now university professors or working in industry or the public
sector.
Article by Ann Manser; photo by Evan Krape
