Maria Kafesaki

Maria Kafesaki is an Associate Professor at the University of Crete's Department of Materials Science and Engineering and an Adjunct Researcher at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) of FORTH. Her research focuses on electromagnetic wave propagation in periodic and random media, particularly in photonic crystals and metamaterials, with applications in nanophotonics and plasmonics. She has over 100 refereed publications and is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.

Education: PhD in Physics (1997), MSc (1992), and BSc (1990) from the University of Crete.

Key Contributions: Developments in chiral and bianisotropic metamaterials, THz metamaterials, and reconfigurable metasurfaces. She has led projects on metamaterials for defense and energy applications, including collaborations with international teams.

Awards: EU Descartes Prize (2005), Fellow of the Optical Society of America (2014).

Editorial Roles: Associate Editor of EPJ: Applied Metamaterials and Section Editor of JEOS:RP. Governing Board member of Metamorphose VI.