Dr. Pagona Papakonstantinou is a Professor of Advanced Materials at the University of Ulster’s Engineering Research Institute. After doctoral studies at Queen’s University of Belfast on magneto-optical materials and postdoctoral research on femtosecond laser micro-deposition at IESL in Crete, Pagona moved to the University of Ulster in 1998 embarking on a new research programme addressing the synthesis and comprehensive characterisation of diamond like carbon. Currently, she leads a group, which specializes on the fabrication and functionalization of low dimensional carbon based nanomaterials, the characterization of their unique physical and physicochemical properties and the demonstration of these materials in biological sensing and energy areas. She and her team have developed new strategies to synthesize diamond nanorods, vertically aligned graphene nanosheets, nanodots, hybrid structures and have applied these to the study of catalysis, self-assembly and biomolecular detection. Her group’s efforts are also directed on engineering carbon based nanomaterials by atomic defects and probing the local atomic environment by synchrotron light in view of understanding their properties. In a series of papers the detailed electronic structure of the graphene lattice modified with various dopants including nitrogen, oxygen, silicon and chlorine have been investigated by synchrotron based spectroscopies (NEXAFS, PEEM, XPS, VB). She serves on various committees and recently was the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship (2011) from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Pagona Papakonstantinou's research interests include: Nanoscience Diamond Like Carbon, graphene, carbon nanomaterials 2D nanomaterials