Prof. Constantinos G. Vayenas Constantinos Vayenas is Professor at the University of Patras and a full member of the Academy of Athens in the Chair of Chemical Sciences. He studied Chemical Engineering at the NTU, 1968-1973, and received his PhD from the University of Rochester, USA in 1976. He then taught as Assistant Professor at Yale University (1976-77) and as Assistant and Associate Professor at ΜΙΤ (1977-82), before returning voluntarily to Patras in 1982.
His research focuses in the areas of Catalysis, Electrochemistry and mathematical modeling of physicochemical phenomena.
He has coauthored 250 refereed publications, four of them in the Journals Science and Nature and has received several international Awards including the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) in 1996, the Wason Medal for Materials Research of the American Concrete Institute in 1992, and the Outstanding Faculty Award of the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT in 1979 and 1981.
He is a Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), Editor of the Springer book series “Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry” and author of three books. He has supervised 36 PhD Theses and 12 of these PhD students have become Professors in Greek but also non-Greek (USA, China) Universities and Research Centers.
The discovery of the effect of the Electrochemical Promotion of Catalysis (EPOC), or non-Faradaic Electrochemical Modification of Catalytic Activity (NEMCA effect), is described together with the key steps of its exploration at high pressure and high vacuum and its rationalization via electrochemical and surface science techniques [1,2]. Recent attempts for its practical utilization are also surveyed.
[1] Vayenas CG and Koutsodontis CG, (2008) J. Chem. Phys. 128:182506.
[2] Vernoux Ph, Lizzaraga L, Tsampas MN, Sapountzi FM, De Lucas-Consuegra A, Valverde JL, Souentie S, Vayenas CG, Tsiplakides D, Balomenou S, Baranova EA, (2013) Chem. Rev. 113:8192-8260.