Nektarios Tavernarakis is the new Director of FORTH’s Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, in Heraklion, Crete, GreeceNektarios Tavernarakis was elected on Saturday, September 21, in the position of the Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, at the Foundation for Research and Technology, in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Dr. Tavernarakis has been heading the Neurogenetics and Ageing laboratory of the Institute, and is an elected Excellence Professor of Molecular Systems Biology at the Medical School of the University of Crete.

NetVolution: Α new ERC starting grant was awarded to FORTH-ICSA new distinction for FORTH, Greece's major Research Centre, came through the recent approval by the ERC (European Research Council) of one more proposal that was submitted by Dr. Xenofontas Dimitropoulos of FORTH's Institute of Computer Science (ICS). This ERC grant will fund Dimitropoulos' "NetVolution" project, to perform research on evolving the routing system of the Internet. ERC starting grants are considered highly honorary: they are given for cutting edge research and they are very competitive -- in 2013, out of 3,329 proposals that were submitted Europe-wide and across all disciplines, only 287 were accepted, i.e. just nine percent (9%); only two (2) of these 287 approved grants are given to researchers in Greek institutions, and "NetVolution" is one of the two. Dr. Dimitropoulos is repatriating to Greece, coming to FORTH and the University of Crete, where he has been elected Assistant Professor, leaving his position with ETH Zurich.

Flexible graphene oxide films for new organic solar cellsThe Ultrafast Laser Micro- and Nano- processing team led by Dr. Emmanuel Stratakis, Principal Application Scientist of the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL/FORTH) and the Nanomaterials & Organic Electronics (NANO) Group, led by Prof. Emmanuel Kymakis, Associate Professor of the Technical Educational Institute (T.E.I) of Crete, have demonstrated a groundbreaking methodology for controlled in-situ reduction of spin-casted graphene oxide (GO) nanometric films on flexible substrates and the subsequent realization of highly conductive and transparent electrodes for flexible organic photovoltaics (OPV).

Research Student Price Oral Presentation AwardEleni-Asimina Kabouraki was awarded the Research Student Price Oral Presentation Award and an Attendance Bursary for Research Students at the Symposium J, E-MRS Spring Meeting 2013 for the presentation of her work: "Quantum dot based higher order nonlinear photonic devices"