Christos Athanasiou is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, where he leads the Daedalus Lab. The lab’s mission is to advance the fundamental understanding of the mechanics and physics of materials to address global challenges in energy access, resource efficiency, and sustainable development. His work integrates advanced experimental methods that capture material behavior under realistic operational conditions, rational mechanics-based design principles, and tailored AI- and physics-driven modeling. Together, these core elements enable the development of a new generation of life-cycle-efficient, cost-effective plastic composites and structures, engineered for demanding applications ranging from low-cost sustainable packaging to unmanned vehicles and space construction.

Christos is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the ASME Orr Early Career Award. His research has been featured by Forbes, The Weather Channel, WSB-TV, and other media outlets, and he has delivered a talk at TEDx Atlanta.

Christos holds a Ph.D. in Photonics from EPFL and conducted postdoctoral research at Brown University’s School of Engineering, and later jointly at Brown University and the MIT Media Lab.