Costas N. Papanicolas

Prof. Costas N. Papanicolas is an Institute Professor at The Cyprus Institute (CyI) and serves as President Emeritus and CEO of the Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation (CREF). He holds adjunct professorships at the University of Athens, Greece, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. With a B.Sc. and Ph.D. from MIT, he has held roles including Director of the Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications at the National Technical University of Athens and chaired key committees shaping Cyprus’ educational and research policies.

• Education: B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Research Interests: Nuclear & Particle Physics, Medical Imaging, Solar Energy, Climate Change Policy, and Educational Policy.

His work bridges theoretical physics, medical diagnostics (e.g., SPECT/PET imaging), and renewable energy systems (e.g., CSP technologies like PROTEAS). He has pioneered thermal tomography via neural networks and contributed to solar thermal storage and hybrid energy systems.

• Awards: Medal of Excellence (Cyprus), Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Italy), Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Prof. Papanicolas advises the Cypriot government on climate change and led the establishment of the University of Cyprus’s Physical Sciences departments. He directs CyI’s research centers and promotes international collaborations in energy sustainability and cultural heritage preservation.