Recent Research Exchange (RE)

Nektarios is a PhD student in the department of Materials Science at the University of Patras in Greece. He is also a research assistant and a full time scholar for the Institute of Chemical Engineering and High Temperature Chemical Processes at the Foundation of Research and Technology in Hellas.
He spent 3 months in June-Sept 2010 and a further 3 months in July-September 2011 at the University of California Davis in the department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. While he was there, his research focused on the elucidation of the structure and physical properties of novel glasses that form in the xY2O3 – (1 – x)Al2O3 binary system. "My favorite part about the program was that I had access to state of the art scientific equipment to fulfill the goals of his research collaboration". Additionally, he had the chance to work in a very friendly and scientifically rewarding environment where he could exchange views and ideas with fellow graduate students on common research interests. He says "..his research collaboration program expanded his scientific horizons and gave me the opportunity to acquire new knowledge on glassy materials .... the best part about living abroad was having the opportunity to meet and interact with people from different cultures and places of the world". For Nektarios, the most challenging part about living abroad was that he had to find out everything from scratch (like cell phones, supermarkets, banks, etc.) when he first arrived. But his newfound friends helped him along the way and made his first days in Davis much easier.