Develops “smart” materials that transform our everyday life
  1. Where are you from and where did you grow up?

I was born and grew up in Athens, Ano Patisia.

  1. You are a Senior Researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology and responsible for the Smart Materials Group, what is your team working on?

My team is working on the development of new materials based on polymer composites and nanocomposites for applications like biomedical devices for controlled drug delivery, flexible electronics, environmental monitoring and cleaning, interactive food packaging, etc. We are focusing more and more on novel biomaterials (of vegetable origin and biodegradable) with enhanced physical properties that can offer us a good life quality and help the environment substituting the non-biodegradable synthetic plastics.

  1. How did you decide to follow that path? Was it something you always knew you will do?

I have always loved Science, since school. My favorite lessons were Physics and Chemistry. Studying Physics at the University of Ioannina, I have decided that there is a whole world out there that needs to be explored. So yes, somehow I have known since a quite young age that I wanted to be a science researcher and I have always pursued that dream.

  1. Smart materials: how can they make our everyday lives better?

Smart materials is a very broad classification of materials. For me smart materials are materials that can improve our lives, our life quality, our health and all these NOT at the expense of the environment. Smart materials can protect our food quality, can clean the polluted waters and air, can indicate pollution, can provide very useful objects that at the end of their lives biodegrade, can save energy in our homes, can provide real time information on our health, can deliver drugs without side effects, etc.

  1. Your research can make a difference in climate change. Is nano technology the help we need in this matter?

Yes, Nanotechnology enables the development of new materials, that were not possible before, which can save energy, decrease the wastes, and safeguard the environment.

  1. We have read your research about creating a highly effective mechanical sponge for cleaning oil spills. Currently, in Greece we are dealing with the Saronic Gulf oil spill, and I would like to ask if such a material could make the difference in saving our oceans?

In my group we have developed and patented new microporous materials modified by nanoparticles, with easily scalable techniques, that can absorb petrol and oil faster and more efficiently from the current solutions available, avoiding their spreading and deposition on the sea bottom. The absorbed petrol can also be recovered with simple mechanical pressure.

  1. The development of biodegradable robots will be a reality in the future?

Yes, in the near future all the products used by humans should become biodegradable, or at least not harmful to the environments, because our planet cannot handle anymore our wastes. High tech solutions should be the first to follow this trend. Robots that will be part of our everyday lives need to follow this trend.

  1. Would you consider returning back to Greece in some point? 

I have created a family in Italy so my mobility is somehow more compromised now than when I was alone. At the moment with the current situation in our country, returning is not in my plans, because there is little perspective for growing professionally but also there are more possibilities for my kids outside Greece. If in the future Greece can offer more attractive alternatives and the social and financial situation becomes more stable, I would definitely consider it, also because I would like to contribute to a fast recovery of our country towards innovation.

  1. What does Greece mean for you?

Greece is a place where I grew, so where I learned most of the things that I know, especially regarding behaviors, ethics, setting targets and fighting for them and human compassion. I hope the kids that grow up in Greece nowdays can learn similar things. Of course Greece is also the place where most of the people that I love, live in.

  1. If you could address a question to all Greeks, what would you like to ask them?

Since we are the nation that gives humanity lessons to all the world (see refugees), and we know how to share the little that we have, why at the same time we are either prone or tolerant to everyday violations of basic social rules and lows (motorbike riders without helmets, smoking in public areas, not-issued receipts, walls full of graffiti and slogans, rubbish thrown around, parking on the pedestrian sidewalks, cars not giving priority to pedestrians, etc.), which unfortunately show lack of respect for our fellow citizens?

Read the interview›
Athanassia Athanassiou
Famous Greeks

Develops “smart” materials that transform our everyday life

Athanassia Athanassiou is a Senior Researcher, responsible for the Smart Materials Group, in the Nanophysics Department of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa. In September 2014 she became Tenured Scientist. In her lab, she tries to develop “smart” materials that will have a positive impact on the environment, transportation, packaging or medicine.

“In our research group (Smart Materials Group) my team is working on the development of new materials based on polymer composites and nanocomposites for applications like biomedical devices for controlled drug delivery, flexible electronics, environmental monitoring and cleaning, interactive food packaging, etc. We are focusing more and more on novel biomaterials (of vegetable origin and biodegradable) with enhanced physical properties that can offer us a good life quality and help the environment substituting the non-biodegradable synthetic plastics” says Athanassiou at ellines.com.

What is more interesting, is that a few months ago, Athanassiou along with her team, manufactured a bio-degradable band-aid that can heal a surface wound by releasing some substances that fight off bacteria and other infections.

The decomposing bioplastic material that scientists at the Italian Institute of Technology are developing can be used both as robotic skin and as part of the machine’s internals. Like humans, robots could also start to decompose once their lives end. This is the goal of the new technology being developed in Athanassiou’s Lab.

Athanassiou has graduated in 1996 in Physics at the University of Ioannina in Greece. In 1997 she got the Master of Science (MSc) in Laser Photonics and Modern Optics from the University of Manchester, Laser Photonics Group, Manchester, UK. In 2000 she became Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the University of Salford, Laser Photonics and Non-Linear Optics Group, Manchester, UK, in collaboration with the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL), Crete, Greece.

Immediately after the completion of her PhD she got a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (I.E.S.L.), Foundation for Research and Technology–Hellas (FO.R.T.H.) in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, where she became associated researcher from January 2003 till the end of 2005. From September 2003 to September 2005 she also had an appointment at the Technological University of Crete, School of Applied Technology, Department of Applied Informatics & Multimedia, as Academic Staff/Scientific collaborator.

From January 2006 to December 2011 she was a Senior Researcher at NNL-National Nanotechnology Laboratory, CNR-Istituto di Nanoscienze in Lecce, Italy responsible for the Nanocomposite and Responsive Materials Division. In June 2006 and for two years she got a part time appointment at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genova, Italy, as a scientist responsible for the development and initiation of the Optical Spectroscopy-Microscopy and Material Science lab-facility that at the moment is part of the Nanophysics Department. From September 2009 to September 2012 she was also coordinating the Smart Materials Platform at the Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies of IIT@UniLe, Lecce.

Scientists from the Italian Institute of Technology led by the Greek scientist are developing ‘smart materials’ that could lead to robots that will decompose like a human body once they’ve reached the end of their life-span. Robots made from biodegradable material would certainly make them more human-like, and perhaps more easily accepted in the real-world. As if the development of biodegradable robots will be a reality in the future, Athanassiou is positive. “In the near future all the products used by humans should become biodegradable, or at least not harmful to the environments, because our planet cannot handle anymore our wastes. High tech solutions should be the first to follow this trend. Robots that will be part of our everyday lives need to follow this trend”.

She has published about 150 articles in refereed journals, she is the author or co-author of several book chapters and she is the inventor of 7 National and 4 International patents.

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