Dr. Elias Papanicolaou is Director of Research at the National Center for Scientific Research (NCSR) “DEMOKRITOS”, at the Solar and other Energy Systems Laboratory (SESL). He received a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece (1985) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Rutgers University, N. Brunswick, New Jersey, USA (1988 and 1991 respectively). Prior to joining SESL as an Assistant Researcher in 1999, he has held other Research & Development positions in the USA (IBM, Thermal Engineering Department) and Germany (Technical University of Karlsruhe).
His area of specialization is the numerical simulation of flow and heat/mass transport phenomena and, within this context, he has been involved in the study of various types of systems encountered in thermal engineering and energy conversion.
With regard to solar and other energy systems in particular, his current interests at SESL lie in the following fields :
1. Analysis and design of Thermal Energy Storage Systems (Sensible and Latent heat)
2. Thermal-hydraulic analysis and optimization of receivers/absorbers for concentrating solar systems (geometry, working fluids)
Furthermore, he has applied relevant methodologies, combined with experimental measurements, in problems encountered in various types of solar thermal and hybrid (PVT) collectors, solar stills, solar-assisted dryers etc. He has participated in a significant number of externally funded research and development problems in these fields, in four of which he was scientific responsible. He has published over 80 technical papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings in his field of specialization, which have received a large number of citations by other researchers (over 1200 in Scopus, as of February 2021). He is a regular reviewer for several acclaimed journals in the areas of fluid/thermal sciences and energy.
For a full list of publications of Dr. Papanicolaou, please refer to the laboratory list of publications.
