Maria Nefeli Antonopoulou-Canziani

Maria-Nefeli was born in Thessaloniki (Greece). She received her MSc in Chemical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). In her thesis, she focused on the synthesis of novel Gallium complexes with (hydroxy)carboxylic acid ligands. Driven by her interest for material properties and synthesis, she continued her studies, successfully completing her second Master’s in Materials Science (AUTh). Her will to widen her horizons led her to conduct her Master’s thesis at ETH Zurich in the Department of Materials, where she worked on the synthesis of thermoresponsive polymeric nanoparticles with different architectures and studied their behavior at water/oil interfaces. Afterwards, she moved to Germany to work at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where her project was on controlling the 2-D crystallisation of colloidal particles with external stimuli. Motivated by her love for ETH and Switzerland, in combination with her desire for research with substantial synthetic components, she decided to continue her education with a PhD in the Polymeric Materials group, with a focus on RAFT polymerization.

In her free time and with her free energy (ΔG), Maria-Nefeli enjoys playing music, running and eating out with friends.