Dimitrios Gournis is a Professor of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology in the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete (TUC), Chania, Greece. He is an experimental synthetic chemist working in the area of layered and nanoporous materials. He was born in Athens (1969) and received his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Ioannina (Greece) in 1992. Then, he became a Postgraduate Fellow (1993–1997) in the Institute of Physical Chemistry at NCSR ‘‘Demokritos’’ (Athens, Greece) while received his PhD in 1998 from the Dept of Chemical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. After a postdoc (1999–2000) at the Institute of Materials Science, NCSR ‘‘Demokritos’’ with Dr. D. Petridis, he moved to the Dept of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina as a lecturer and then Assistant Professor (non tenure track, 2000–2004). In 2004, he joined the group of Prof. P. Rudolf as a Research Associate at the Materials Science Center, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (the Netherlands). In 2005 he was appointed Assistant Professor (tenure, 2008) of Materials Chemistry in the Dept of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) of University of Ioannina and promoted to Associate Professor in 2009 and full Professor in 2014. In 2023 he was elected full Professor of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology in the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at TUC. He has been a visiting professor at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of University of Groningen, the Netherlands (2008-2009).

His research interests are focused on the synthesis, characterization and study of the properties of layered (2D) materials [in particular inorganic layered structures, clay-based materials (clays, pillared clays, organo-clays, LDHs), carbon layered structures, TMDs, germanane, silicane, MXenes etc], carbon nanostructures (carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, graphenes, carbon dots, molecular diamonds), hybrid organic–inorganic nanocomposites, metallic (magnetic, catalytic or semiconducting) nanoparticles, mesoporous materials (carbon or silica-based) and biocatalysts. Research approach is interdisciplinary and covers structural, chemistry and engineering aspects of materials and focuses on the areas of catalytic, energy, environmental, magnetic, electronic, optical, composite construction, bio-related and medical applications.

He is the author of 240 international publications in peer reviewed journals (Total Impact Factor, ΣΙF= 1304.3 and Mean Impact Factor, IF/paper = 5.5) acknowledged with more than 12,650 citations (>11,000 without self-citations) and h-index 55 (Google Scholar). He has also published 5 chapters (invited-refereed) in international books, 4 papers (refereed/3 invited) in book series, 3 technical reports and has 4 international patents, while he has given 44 invited talks in conferences and institutions. He has successfully accomplished the supervision of 19 PhD and 30 MSc Theses, and he has supervised more than 190 students in their Diploma Thesis. He has participated as Principal Investigator (12), main researcher (19) or Program coordinator (5) in 36 funded European and National (Greek) programs. He has been a member of the organizing committee in 8 conferences. Finally, he is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Materials journal (specialty section: ‘Carbon-based Materials’, since 2014), member of the editorial board in Molecules (Section Editor in ‘Materials Chemistry’, since 2018), Nanomaterials (Section Editor in ‘2D and Carbon Nanomaterials’, since 2019) and Materials Futures (IOP publishing, 2021-2024) while he has been a member of the board (2016-2018) of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI, elected representative of Univ. of Ioannina). Finally, he’ve been the Director of (i) interdepartmental post-graduate (MSc) program “Chemistry and Technology of Materials” (2018-2022) and (ii) post-graduate (MSc) program “Advanced Materials Technologies” (2022-2023) of DMSE of Univ. of Ioannina. Since 2023 is affiliated faculty (and vice-director since 2024) of Institute of GeoEnergy, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), Chania, Crete and member (and vice-director) of Physical Chemistry & Chemical Processes (PCCP laboratory) of School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering of TUC (www.pccplab.tuc.gr).