Who I am

Maria Vamvakaki has received a B.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Crete. She holds a doctoral degree in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Sussex, U.K. where she did her graduate work with Profs. S. P. Armes and N. C. Billingham, on the synthesis of water-soluble polymers and their evaluation as ceramic dispersants. From 1997 to 1998 she was a post-doctoral associate at the School of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science at the University of Sussex, working on the synthesis and characterization of double-hydrophilic block copolymers and their self-assembly in water. In 1999 she became a Visiting Assistant Professor in Chemistry at the Department of Physical Sciences of the University of Cyprus while in 2000 she joined the group of Prof. C. S. Patrickios at the Chemistry Department of the University of Cyprus as a research associate where she worked on the synthesis, characterization, modeling and applications of model polymer networks. From 2001 to 2004 she was a visiting Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Technology of the University of Crete and a visiting scientist at the School of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science at the University of Sussex. She is an affiliated researcher at FO.R.T.H.-Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (I.E.S.L.) since 2003. In 2004 she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Crete, where she became an Associate Professor in 2011 and a Full Professor in 2018. Current research activities include: synthesis and characterization of novel polymers of various architectures; stimuli-responsive, "smart" and functional polymers; self-assembly and structure formation of polymeric materials in solution and at a surface; biomedical applications of polymers.