Dr. Maria Kafesaki is a researcher at the Theoretical and Computational Division in the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL), Foundation for research and Technology, Hellas (FORTH). She obtained her Ph.D. in 1997, at the Physics Department of the University of Crete, Greece. She has worked as post-doctoral researcher in the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Scientificas in Madrid, Spain, and in IESL-FORTH. Her research is on the area of electromagnetic, and elastic wave propagation in periodic and random media, with emphasis on photonic crystals, and left-handed materials, where she has a long time theoretical and computational experience. She has around 40 publications in refereed journals and conference proceedings.