A gentle Greek signed off, when senior researcher Nikos Bonanos after 22 years in Denmark, more than 100 papers and widespread international recognition, decided to retire from DTU Energy and return to his homeland Greece.
Although Nikolaus ‘Nikos’ Bonanos had given notice that he was retiring several years ago, he repeatedly postponed his decision since he loved his job, his research and his colleagues. Finally, the time for leaving had come. The well-attended farewell reception at DTU Energy turned out to be an emotional mixture of laughter and tears and clearly showed the affection he is held in by his colleagues.
Nikos Bonanos (65 yr.) originally left Greece 45 years ago for the UK and a degree at the University of Sussex and Imperial College and later a job at British Petroleum (BP). But a visit at Risø National Laboratory as a guest made a lasting impression and later he moved to Denmark to become a researcher.
Just to try it out. He stayed for 22 years.
"I remember visiting Risø and thinking that this was a nice place to do research, and it turned it that it was"
Nikolaos 'Nikos' Bonanos, senior researcher, leaving DTU Energy after 22 years
Nikos has throughout most of his career done researchon ion-conducting materials for fuel cells and other electrochemical devices, and Nikos has been a pioneer in proton-conducting materials containing cerium (so-called cerates). His articles on the subject helped to start an entire field of research. At Risø he started at the Materials Research Department, later worked in the Fuel Cells and Solid State Chemistry Division and finally ended up in the Department of Energy Conversion and Storage at DTU, but he always stayed at Risø.
“I remember visiting Risø and thinking that this was a nice place to do research, and it turned it that it was”, said Nikos, who has been highly appreciated for his dedicated work and his honest, serious and humorous approach to both his science and his colleagues.
“You are a very clever scientist”, said Head of Section Peter Vang Hendriksen about Nikos at the reception, and he continued: “And you are very good with people as your impressive CV shows: You have more than 100 different co-authors on your papers. People simply like you, both inside the department and internationally, as you have always been really good at networking and you have loved sharing your knowledge.”
After 35 years in the service of science, Nikos is now leaving DTU and Denmark for his homeland of Greece, even though he hasn’t lived there for 45 years. But as he said at the reception: “I have for some years felt an ever-increasing gravitational pull from Greece, and all the news from Greece these last years has fueled my desire to return, even though the news haven’t been that positive with the bad economy and all.”
All the more reason for Nikos to return as he doesn’t plan to be a passive retiree. Instead he returns with plans to create new jobs by being both a consultant within his areas of research and by developing a series of cheaper measurement tools, thereby helping universities in the less developed economies contribute to international research.
“I won’t stop my involvement just because I am retiring.”
Nikos Bonanos leaves DTU Energy and Denmark by the end of October 2015.