lazarou<at>chem.demokritos.gr

Yannis G. Lazarou was born in 1961 in Volos, Greece. He graduated from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, obtaining the Degree of Chemistry in 1984. His early research interests were in the field of Inorganic Chemistry. In 1985, he entered the Graduate Programme of the University of Crete, to work in the field of Physical Chemistry with Prof. Panos Papagiannakopoulos. He studied the mechanism of dialkyl-nitramine decomposition in the gas phase by using intense infrared radiation from a CO2 laser as the excitation source. At the same time, the "dawn" of computer era, he started doing computer programming (Fortran, Assembly) on a microPDP-11/23 and a VAX-11/750, in order to facilitate data analysis and retrieval from a Balzers QMG-511 mass spectrometer. The lab team also succeeded in constructing a very low pressure reactor (VLPR) system to study chlorine atom reactions. In 1991, he obtained his PhD, entitled "Study of the Decomposition Mechanism and Chemical Reactivity of Nitramines in the Gas Phase". He continued to work in Crete, using the VLPR reactor to determine the kinetics and mechanism of Cl atom reactions with several compounds. The list of compounds grew up by considering species of environmental importance. In 1993, he started his 19-month military national service in the Greek Air Force. During the years 1995-1998, he was working as a visiting professor in the Chemistry Department, University of Crete, teaching General Chemistry (class and lab), Computational Chemistry and Physical Chemistry. In 1999, he moved to Athens, to work as a Researcher in the Institute of Physical Chemistry, NCSR "Demokritos", in the field of computational Atmospheric Chemistry. His research interests embrace the experimental and theoretical study of chemical reactions and the development of computer code to simplify the interface of the binary computer world with the real world of chemists.