Antonis I. Vakis is Associate Professor in the Mechanics and Tribology of Engineering Systems (MeTrES) and Chair of the Computational Mechanical and Materials Engineering (CMME) research group of the Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen (ENTEG), Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Dr. Vakis earned his PhD degree from the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in December 2011, working on nanoscale interface mechanics with application to magnetic storage. His research was funded partly through a Young Researchers of Cyprus Grant (FP7) administered between the University of Illinois and the University of Cyprus. Dr. Vakis earned his MS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 2008, for his work on the biomechanical modeling of trap-jaw ant mandible strikes. He studied as a CASP (Cyprus-America Scholarship Program) Fulbright scholar at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he earned his BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2005.
His research interests lie in the field of mechanical engineering: tribology, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy and biomechanics. Since joining the University of Groningen in January 2013, he has been supervising postdoctoral researchers, PhD, Master and Bachelor students working on various research projects such as molecularly thin lubricant films, functional coatings, thermally reversible polymers, manufacturing processes, as well as novel renewable energy harvesting and storage technologies. Dr. Vakis is Program Director of the MSc program in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) at the University of Groningen, an Academic Fellow of the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), as well as a co-founder and scientific advisor for spin-off company Ocean Grazer B.V.