Rate My Professor Costas Papanicolas

Costas N. Papanicolas is an Institute Professor in the Physics faculty at The Cyprus Institute, where he served as President from 2008 to 2022. He is also CEO of the Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation, Professor Emeritus at the University of Athens, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Papanicolas earned his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972 and 1979, respectively. His career includes positions as a researcher at the French Atomic Energy Commission in Saclay, Full Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois and the University of Athens, Director of the Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications in Greece, and head of the Physics Laboratory at the University of Athens. He chaired the Accreditation Council for Tertiary Education of the Republic of Cyprus from 1998 to 2006, the committee that established the Department of Physical Sciences at the University of Cyprus, and served on the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology of the Hellenic Republic and the Research and Innovation Council of the Republic of Cyprus. Additionally, he has been involved in the Cyprus-CERN Committee and the interim governing board of SESAME in Jordan.

Papanicolas has researched and published extensively, with over 180 peer-reviewed papers, in Nuclear, Particle and Medical Physics, Energy Policy, Solar Energy, and Educational Policy. His contributions extend to two patents in medical physics and solar energy. He holds prestigious honors including Fellowship of the American Physical Society since 1994, membership in Academia Europaea since 2011, the Silk Road Academy of Sciences since 2017, and founding membership in the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts since 2019. In 2019, he received the Medal of Excellence for Service to the Republic of Cyprus and was bestowed the title of Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia by the President of Italy. Further recognitions include the Arnold O. Beckman Award in 1988 and Associate Membership in the Overseas Academy of Sciences of France in 2023. As Advisor to the President of the Republic of Cyprus on Climate Change and Presidential Special Envoy since 2019, Papanicolas has significantly influenced regional climate initiatives in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, including the Cyprus Initiative on Climate Change.