Ioannis Tzifas is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Materials Research Department at the GSI Helmholtz Center of Heavy Ion Research, where he is developing an experimental station for the irradiation of samples under high pressures in diamond anvil cells, which for the first time allows in-situ characterization of the irradiated samples by Raman spectroscopy. His scientific work focuses on the investigation of materials under the combined effects of high static pressure and irradiation with high energy GeV ions, which yield new effects such as the generation of new phases far from thermodynamic equilibrium or the stabilization of high-pressure phases at ambient conditions. Ioannis main scientific field is geoscience (BSc and MSc) with expertise in applied mineralogy and actinide geochemistry.  He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Nuclear Chemistry of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). His expertise includes also the micro- and nano- structural characterization of natural and synthetic materials using synchrotron radiation (XRD, XRF, XANES), and various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques (Raman, FT-IR).