About me

An associate professor of physics at the University Louisiana at Lafayette, I teach introductory and advanced physics courses and lead the computational magnetic materials laboratory. My academic foundation started with a Diploma in physics from the Freie Universität Berlin in 2009 and a doctorate in science at ETH Zurich in 2012. I then received a fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, where I worked with Dr. Frances Hellman. In 2014, I returned to ETH Zurich as a senior scientist in the group of Dr. Jörg Löffler in the Department of Materials before moving to Lafayette, Louisiana in 2018. Originally from Cyprus, I am fluent in Greek, English, and German. I can also understand some Cajun.

Outside of my academic pursuits, I enjoy playing the piano and composing music. Fun fact: it was physics that inspired me to learn the piano. While I was working on my Diploma thesis in 2008, I decided I needed a creative musical outlet and I started teaching my self how to play the piano. Admittedly, it took some time before I could play a reasonable tune, and some close friends had to endure my early efforts. Over the years it got a bit better and I had been playing mostly for my self and friends and family, but as it turns out, other people like it too, so in 2023 I started performing solo regularly at Charley G's in Lafayette.

Here, you can find a few videos from original compositions and some recent releases. The newest releases are available on all popular streaming platforms. Look for "Michalis - As the days go by" or "Michalis - Echoes of the Aegean blues", or click on the Spotify player here:

Music written for songs in the children's book Η κουτσή κιθάρα, written by Marina Fragκeskidou in 2017. Have you ever wondered what happens to a guitar if it loses a string? Will she be able to play music again? And if so, what will the melodies she creates be like? These and many more questions are answered in the book by Rouge, a special guitar. In her adventure she has good allies: Her friend, Blue, her teacher, Lina the Mandolin, and of course the guitar mom, who teaches us that nothing is impossible when we really want it, it's just that sometimes we have to find other ways to make our wishes come true. What is certain is that we can achieve anything, as long as we have persistence, will and a little light in our hearts.

In 2016, Marina Fragkeskidou and I wrote a song with the title Τα Λάβαρα (the banners) and submitted it to the annual composition competition, organized by the Cyprus Radio-Television Authority (RIK). The song, sang on live television by Kiriaki Elia, won first place in the competition, based on votes of judges and by text-voting of live viewers.

In 2016, I wrote the music for several songs in the album Σκισμένοι Χάρτες (torn maps), recorded by the band Sempreviva in Athens, Greece. The leader of the band, Nikos Koskinas, is an old friend since our college days in Berlin, Germany. Nikos is currently a professor of German literature at the University of Athens.