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Nikolaos Kylafis

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Nikolaos Kylafis
Kylafis in 2019
Born (1949-01-01) 1 January 1949 (age 75)
Nea Avorani, Greece
Known for
Scientific career
Institutions
Doctoral advisorDonald Q. Lamb

Nikolaos Kylafis (Greek: Νικόλαος Κυλάφης) is a Greek Theoretical Astrophysicist, who is professor emeritus[1] at the Department of Physics of the University of Crete, Greece.

Kylafis contributed to the founding of the Astrophysics Group of the University of Crete and the Foundation for Research & Technology - Helas (FORTH) in 1985 and led, together with his colleague Ioannis Papamastorakis, the effort to create the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH in 2018.[2] He has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Physics since 1985. He has published research works in refereed journals.[3]

Education

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Nikolaos (Nick) Kylafis was born in Nea Avorani, Greece, on 1 January 1949, where he grew up. In 1966 he was admitted at the Department of Physics of the University of Patras and graduated in 1971.[citation needed] The next year he started his graduate studies in the US at the University of Illinois from where he received his master's degree in 1973 and PhD in 1978. His PhD dissertation was entitled "X and UV radiation from accreting non-magnetic degenerate dwarfs"[4] and it was completed under the supervision of Donald Q. Lamb.[5]

Academic career

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After a short break to complete his compulsory military service in Greece, Kylafis continued his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech (1979-1981), where he collaborated with Peter Goldreich and contributed to the discovery of the so-called Goldreich-Kylafis effect.[6] He then moved as a member to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1981-1984), where he collaborated with John N. Bahcall on topics related to radiative transfer in dusty disk galaxies.[7] He worked for a year as an assistant professor at Columbia University in New York City, before returning as a faculty member at the Department of Physics of the University of Crete.[1] He was promoted to full professor in 1997 and served as chairman of the department as well as dean of the School of Natural Sciences. He retired in 2016 and became emeritus professor. In 2018, he was elected to the Council of the European Astronomical Society, where he is currently serving as treasurer.[8] In 2019, he was awarded the outstanding teaching prize "Stelios Pichorides" by the University of Crete.[9]

Academic recognition

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In 2019, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, the Institute of Astrophysics of FORTH founded the "Nick Kylafis Lectureship"[10] in recognition of his 35 years of scientific and administrative leadership, which contributed to the creation of the Institute of Astrophysics in 2018.[11] Under the auspices of the Lectureship, one distinguished Theoretical Astrophysicist is invited annually at FORTH for a brief visit.[12]

The scientists who have been awarded the Lectureship are:

Scientific contributions

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Kylafis has contributed to topics related to the production and transfer of radiation in spiral galaxies,[7] in accretion disks around neutron stars and black holes,[20] as well as in astrophysical MASERs.[21][22] His most known work is the Goldreich-Kylafis effect, which predicts that, under special conditions, the spectral lines emitted by interstellar molecules should be linearly polarized and the linear polarization vector should reveal the magnetic field direction in the molecular cloud.[6] Other discoveries include the empirical explanation of the physical mechanisms that take place during the accretion and ejection of mass from binary systems which include a black hole[20] and the proof that the different physical processes that take place in these systems are correlated.[23][24]

Selected publications

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  • Kylafis, N.D., Bahcall, J. N., "Dust Distribution in Spiral Galaxies", 1987, ApJ, 317, 637
  • Xilouris, E. M.; Byun, Y. I.; Kylafis, N. D.; Paleologou, E. V.; Papamastorakis, J. "Are spiral galaxies optically thin or thick?", 1999, A&A, 344, 868
  • Titarchuk, L.; Mastichiadis, A.; Kylafis, N. D., "X-Ray Spectral Formation in a Converging Fluid Flow: Spherical Accretion into Black Holes", 1997 ApJ, 487, 834
  • Goldreich, P.; Kylafis, N. D., "On mapping the magnetic field direction in molecular clouds by polarization measurements", 1981, ApJ, 243, 75
  • Kylafis, N. D.; Lamb, D. Q., "X-ray and UV radiation from accreting degenerate dwarfs", 1982, ApJS, 48, 239

References

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  1. ^ a b "Kylafis Nikos | Department of Physics". www.physics.uoc.gr. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  2. ^ Λακασάς, Απόστολος (March 2018). "Στην Κρήτη Ινστιτούτο Αστροφυσικής | Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ". www.kathimerini.gr. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  3. ^ "Nick Kylafis". scholar.google.gr. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  4. ^ Dimitrios, Kylafis, Nikolaos (1978). X and UV radiation from accreting non-magnetic degenerate dwarfs (Thesis). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. hdl:2142/25601.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics | Donald Q. Lamb". astro.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  6. ^ a b Goldreich, P.; Kylafis, N. D. (1 January 1981). "On mapping the magnetic field direction in molecular clouds by polarization measurements". The Astrophysical Journal. 243: L75–L78. Bibcode:1981ApJ...243L..75G. doi:10.1086/183446. ISSN 0004-637X.
  7. ^ a b Kylafis, Nikolaos D.; Bahcall, John N. (1 June 1987). "Dust distribution in spiral galaxies". The Astrophysical Journal. 317: 637–645. Bibcode:1987ApJ...317..637K. doi:10.1086/165308. ISSN 0004-637X.
  8. ^ "EAS Council". eas.unige.ch. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  9. ^ [2020-08-06 "Αποτελέσματα Βράβευσης Εξαίρετης Πανεπιστημιακής Διδασκαλίας «Στέλιου Πηχωρίδη» για το Ακαδημαϊκό Έτος 2019-2020"]. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2021. {{cite news}}: Check |archive-url= value (help)
  10. ^ "Ένας διάσημος αστροφυσικός στο Ηράκλειο". ΠΑΤΡΙΣ (in Greek). 24 October 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  11. ^ "ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΑΣΤΡΟΦΥΣΙΚΗΣ ΣΤΟ ΙΤΕ: Το όραμα έγινε πράξη σε δέκα χρόνια". ΠΑΤΡΙΣ (in Greek). 1 March 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  12. ^ ""Διάλεξη Ν. Κυλάφης" για την αστροφυσική - ertnews.gr". www.ertnews.gr (in Greek). 24 October 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  13. ^ "Rashid Sunyaev". Wikipedia. 15 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Ένας διάσημος αστροφυσικός στο Ηράκλειο". ΠΑΤΡΙΣ (in Greek). 24 October 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Το μέλλον της κοσμολογίας στη "διάλεξη Κυλάφη"". ΠΑΤΡΙΣ (in Greek). 1 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  16. ^ "Η διάσημη Αστροφυσικός Ewin van Dishoeck ομιλήτρια στο ΙΤΕ". RethNea.gr (in Greek). 19 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  17. ^ "Nick Kylafis Lectureship". FORTH Institute of Astrophysics. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  18. ^ "Διακεκριμένη διάλεξη «Νικόλαος Κυλάφης 2023» στο ΙΤΕ - HANIA.news" (in Greek). 16 October 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  19. ^ "ΙΤΕ: Μία σπουδαία διάκριση σε έναν εξαίρετο επιστήμονα- Δείτε βίντεο". Cretalive (in Greek). Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  20. ^ a b Kylafis, N. D.; Belloni, T. M. (1 February 2015). "Accretion and ejection in black-hole X-ray transients". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 574: A133. arXiv:1412.7662. Bibcode:2015A&A...574A.133K. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201425106. ISSN 0004-6361. S2CID 119183793.
  21. ^ Kylafis, N. D.; Norman, C. (1 January 1986). "On pumping astronomical masers". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 300: L73–L77. Bibcode:1986ApJ...300L..73K. doi:10.1086/184606. ISSN 0004-637X.
  22. ^ Pavlakis, Konstantinos G.; Kylafis, Nikolaos D. (1 August 1996). "OH Masers as Diagnostics of Physical Conditions in Star-forming Regions. II. Effects of Large Velocity Gradients and Infrared Radiation". The Astrophysical Journal. 467: 309. Bibcode:1996ApJ...467..309P. doi:10.1086/177606. ISSN 0004-637X.
  23. ^ Reig, Pablo; Kylafis, Nikolaos D.; Papadakis, Iossif E.; Costado, María Teresa (1 February 2018). "The photon-index-time-lag correlation in black hole X-ray binaries". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 473 (4): 4644–4652. arXiv:1710.04810. Bibcode:2018MNRAS.473.4644R. doi:10.1093/mnras/stx2683. ISSN 0035-8711.
  24. ^ Kylafis, Nikolaos D.; Reig, Pablo (1 June 2018). "Correlation of time lag and photon index in GX 339-4". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 614: L5. arXiv:1806.03052. Bibcode:2018A&A...614L...5K. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833339. ISSN 0004-6361. S2CID 243904295.
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