BIO

Professor Ioannis Michalou(di)s is a visual artist, researcher and academic, internationally acknowledged as a leader in Art & Science, and the first researcher worldwide to apply the ethereal NASA’s nanomaterial silica aerogel in visual arts and design.

His career began in Paris, at Sorbonne University, where he presented his thesis on Visual Arts in 1998. After receiving a “Greek Artists” Fulbright Award in 2001, he undertook research on art and nanotechnology at MIT where he started his research on the application of the silica aerogel in visual arts. He has been a Fellow by Onassis Foundation and is also a Research Associate at the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the National Center for Scientific Research “Democritus” in Greece. Since October 2020 he is the Founding Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at the American University of Cyprus (AUCY) in Larnaca.

Moreover, he has authored twenty-two research papers, two book chapters and a book and is currently working on several projects regarding art and science. As of now, he has had twelve solo international exhibitions and has been invited in more than twenty international Art & Science exhibitions and conferences. His latest group exhibition was at the Venice Glass Week festival (September 14-22, 2024) where he collaborated with Simone Crestani to produce artworks made of glass and silica aerogel for their artistic project called SOS: Save our Sky. Their artworks are now exhibited at the concept store of the fashion house Dries Van Noten, in New York.

An astonishing achievement, among others, of Prof. Michalou(di)s is that at the end of 2025, two of his silica aerogel aer( )sculptures will be rocketed to the moon and exist there for billions of years.