Eleftherios N. Economou

EDUCATION

• Diploma, National Technical University of Athens,  1958-63
• M.Sc., University of Chicago,  1966-67
• Ph.D., University of Chicago,  1966-69

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

• Professor Emeritus, University of Crete,  2007-present
• Professor of Physics, University of Crete,  1981-2007
• Associate member, Ames Lab, ISU,  1992-present
• Senior member, FORTH,   1983-present
• Professor of Physics, Chair of Theoretical Physics, University of Athens,  1978-81 
• Professor of Physics, University of Virginia,  1979-81 
• Associate Professor of Physics, University of Virginia,  1973-79 
• Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Virginia,  1970-73 
• Research Associate, University of Chicago,  1969-70 
• Teaching and Research Assistant, University of Chicago,  1966-69 
• Visiting Professor at various Universities (University of Chicago, Université de Lausanne, Princeton University, Iowa State University). 
• Consultant in Exxon Research Corporation, Naval Research Lab, USA,  1980-88 

BOOKS

This book, which has received more than 2000 citations, was included in the electronic  Springer Book  Archives containing 40 renowned imprints published by Springer between 1842 and 2005.

Amazon customer “Daniel Ranard” in his review for this book states:  “ A wonderfully clear, concept-oriented, and well -structured account of solid state physics, it’s just an intro solid state textbook, but this apparently undiscovered gem deserves a review. Within a week of starting I felt like I’d learned a new way of thinking about systems …”    Since this book’s online publication on Sep 14, 2010, there has been a total of 12289 chapter downloads on SpringerLink.

This is the second greatly enlarged edition of “A Short Journey from Quarks to the Universe”. It contains multiple choice questions, solved problems, and unsolved problems. The first edition, was one of the top 50% most downloaded eBooks in the relevant Springer eBooks. The 2nd edition can serve as a text book in a course where the students will wrap up their knowledge and reasoning in order to derive and understand basic features of the real world.

 

• "Science: How its allurement set", Eurasian Publications, Athens 2012 (in Greek).
• "From Quarks to the Universe: A short journey", Crete University Press, 2012 (in Greek).
• "A Short Journey from Quarks to the Universe" , SpringerBriefs, 2011. A 2nd enlarged edition appeared in Jan. 2016 entitled "From Quarks to the Universe: A short Physics Course", Springer-Verlag, 2016.
• "The Physics of Solids. Essentials and Beyond", Springer-Verlag, 2010.
• "Green's functions in Quantum Physics", Springer-Verlag, 1979. Second edition 1983, third edition 2006.
• "Statistical Physics and Thermodynamics", Crete University Press, 1994, 2^nd ed., 2001 (in Greek).
• "Solid State Physics Vol. I: Metals, Semiconductors, Insulators", Crete University Press, 1997 (in Greek).
• "Solid State Physics. Vol. II: Order, Disorder, Correlations", Crete University Press, 2003 (in Greek).
• "Solid State Physics: A shortened version", Crete University Press, 2016 (in Greek).
• "Solids I - General View" & "Solids I - Metals and Semiconductors", Hellenic Open University, 1999 (in Greek).
• "Nuclear Weapons and Human Civilization", Crete University Press, 1985, 2nd ed. 1987 (in Greek).
• "Contemporary Physics", Volume 1, Crete University Press, 1989, 5^th ed., 2010 (in Greek, co-author).
• "Contemporary Physics", Volume 2, Crete University Press, 1989, 1991, 5^th ed., 2010 (in Greek, co-author).

OTHER ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

• Founder (together with other colleagues) of FORTH
• 266 papers in refereed journals, on subjects related with the electronic or classical wave motion in amorphous and crystalline solids with emphasis on transport properties in semiconductors and on classical wave propagation, as well as many articles (109) in books and scientific encyclopediae.
• Fellow of the American Physical Society (1994).  
• Honorary doctorate degrees from Ecole Polytechnique de Grenoble (1994) and the University of Ioannina (2004).  
• He was a member of the team which received in 2005 the Descartes prize (the highest EU award for cooperative research). He received an award from the Foundation of the Greek Parliament (2010) and the Commander of the Order of Phoenix by the President of the Greek Republic (2013)
• Supervised ten Ph.D. theses at the Universities of Virginia, Athens, and Crete, and co-supervised another six  
• Has given numerous courses in various summer schools, over 210 seminars and lectures at various Universities, Research Centers and Conferences throughout the world and over 60 invited talks in various international conferences. 
• Obtained several grants to support his research from NSF (USA), Ministry of Research and Technology (Creece), NATO and from the Commission of the European Communities (ESPRIT, SCIENCE, HUMAN CAPITAL MOBILITY, TMR programmes). In total he received more than 12 Meuros.  
• Member or chairman of various International Scientific or Advisory Committees.

ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS

• Director General and Chairman of the Governing Board of FORTH,  1983-2004  
• Vice Chairman, National Advisory Research Council, Greece, 1988-91 
• Chairman, Committee for Physical Sciences and Engineering,  National Advisory Research Council, Greece, 1988-91 
• General Secretary for Research & Technology, Greece, 1987-88 
• Member, Governing Board, University of Crete, 1981-86 
• Chairman, Technical Council, University of Crete, 1982-86 
• Chairman, Physics Dept., University of Crete, 1981-82 
• Dean, School of Sciences, University of Crete, 1981-82 
• Member, Technical Council, University of Crete, 1990-92 
• Member, Scientific Council, NRC "Democritos", Greece,  1988-90

ADMINISTRATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS

His most important achievement is his role in the creation of FORTH, which in less than twenty years has been established as a prominent European Research Center.

He played a significant role in creating CRETE UNIVERSITY PRESS, the first University Press in Greece.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Wave propagation in complex media, such as photonic and phononic crystals, left-handed materials, localization theory and amorphous semiconductors.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (Principal citation number is from "Web of Science")

• E.N. Economou, "Surface Plasmons in Thin Films", Phys. Rev. 182, 539–554 (1969). Citations: 912 (Google: 1183)
• M. Sigalas, E.N. Economou, "Band Structure of Elastic Waves in Two-dimensional Systems", Solid State Communications 86, Issue 3, 141-143 (1993). Citations: 461 (Google: 612); Journal of Sound and Vibrations, 158, 377 (1992). Citations: 444 (Google: 688)
• S. Foteinopoulou, E.N. Economou, C.M. Soukoulis, "Refraction at Media with Negative Refractive Index", Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 107402 (2003). Citations: 318 (Google: 469)
• E.N. Economou, C.M. Soukoulis, "Static Conductance and Scaling Theory of Localization in One Dimension", Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 618-621 (1981). Citations: 221 (Google: 321)
• E.N. Economou, M.H. Cohen, "Existence of Mobility Edges in Anderson's Model for Radom Lattices", Phys. Rev. B. 5, 2931–2948 (1972). Citations: 227 (Google: 254)
• R. Zhao, J. Zhou, Th. Koschny, E.N. Economou, C.M. Soukoulis, "Repulsive Casimir Force in Chiral Metamaterials", Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 103602 (2009). Citations: 135 (Google: 179)
• Z. N. Aravantinos, M. M. Sigalas, M. Kafesaki, E. N. Economou "Phononic crystals and elastodynamics: Some relevant points", AIP Advances 4, 124203 (2014). Citations: 4 (Google: 5)

A complete list and full text of most publications can be found at PPM group's web page.

A list of publications can be also found at the Researcher-ID account http://www.researcherid.com/rid/E-6374-2010