Prof. Vasileios Koutsos

Vasileios Koutsos is a Professor (Chair in Soft Materials and Surfaces) at the Institute for Materials and Processes in the School of Engineering. Formerly a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics in Collège de France (Paris, France, 1998–2000), he holds a BSc in Physics (Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1992) and a PhD in Polymer Science (Chemistry Department & Materials Science Centre, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, 1997). His main research interests lie in polymers, rubbers, coatings, nanocomposites, nanoparticles, nano/micro/bio-mechanics, adhesion, friction, and surface characterisation. Particular emphasis is laid on using the atomic force microscope as an advanced multipurpose tool to probe the nanometre-scale morphology and the nanomechanical, physicochemical, adhesive, and frictional properties of materials for both fundamental studies and applications.