National Centre of Scientific Research "DEMOKRITOS"

The National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” is the biggest and most acclaimed research center in Greece, employing over 1,000 researchers, engineers, technicians and administrative personnel. It is a multidisciplinary research center focusing on several fields of natural sciences and engineering and hosting important laboratory facilities. NCSR “Demokritos” spreads over, approximately, 150 acres of land at Aghia Paraskevi, a suburb ten kilometers from the center of Athens, on the northern side of Hymettus mountain. The buildings cover an area of approximately 35.000 m2 (8.6 acres). The main mission of the center is:

• to conduct basic and applied research
• to develop know-how and contribute to the social and economic development of the country
• to offer customized high technology services to the public and private sectors
• to be the training center for young scientists in advanced technology and new fields of research.

The Centre started its operation in 1959 as an independent division of the public sector under the name Nuclear Research Center “Demokritos”, named in honour of the Greek philosopher Democritus. In 1985 it was renamed and given self-governing jurisdiction under the auspices of the General Secretariat of Research and Technology. The original objective of the newly created center was the advancement of nuclear research and technology for peaceful purposes. Today, its activities cover several fields of science and engineering. The NCSR is a self-administered governmental legal entity, under the supervision of the General Secretariat of Research and Technology of the Ministry of Education.

Research Institutes

The research activities of the centre are conducted in eight administratively independent institutes:

• Institute of Biology
• Institute of Materials Science (IMS)
• Institute of Microelectronics
• Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications (IIT)
• Institute of Nuclear Technology - Radiation Protection (INT-RP)
• Institute of Nuclear Physics
• Institute of Radioisotopes & Radiodiagnostic Products
• Institute of Physical Chemistry

The INT-RP at Demokritos operates Greece's only nuclear reactor, a 5 MW research reactor.

The Environmental Research Laboratory (EREL)

The EREL is part of the Institute of Nuclear Technology - Radiation Protection (INT-RP) and it is one of the largest scientific research teams in Greece dealing with environmental research. The staff consists of 13 Ph.D. and 5 M.Sc. scientists, 4 Ph.D. students, 1 technician and 1 administrative assistant.

Head: Dr. Athanassios Stubos, Researcher A'

The research and development activities of the EREL include:

• Weather Forecasting[1]
• Urban air quality
• Emissions inventories
• Air quality measurement, analysis and predictions
• Air pollutant dispersion modelling^[1][2] over terrain of high complexity on local, urban and regional scales.
• Transport in porous media and characterization of porous materials
• Soil remediation

The DETRACT atmospheric dispersion modeling system

The DETRACT atmospheric dispersion modelling system, developed by the EREL, is an integrated set of modules for modelling air pollution dispersion over highly complex terrain.

The modules included in DETRACT include:

• Topography and land use pre-processors that prepare the ground-related inputs for the other modules.
• A meteorological pre-processor to generate meteorological data.
• A module for generating wind fields.
• A module (ADREA-I) performing small to medium scale calculations under any atmospheric stability conditions. It is a 3-D program utilizing the conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy. The module takes into account air/ground energy and mass interactions including solar radiation and forest fire heat input.
• A Eulerian dispersion module (ADREA-D) for passive plume dispersion. The model allows for 3-D variability of wet scavenging and deposition.
• A Eulerian dispersion module (ADREA/UAM) for chemical substances utilizing the U.S. EPA-UAM photochemical model.
• A Lagrangian particle dispersion module (DIPCOT) for dispersion modelling of passive pollution plumes and point sources.

The Media Networks Laboratory

The Media Networks Laboratory is a part of the “Digital Communications” research programme of the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR “Demokritos”. It is located in the premises of NCSR in Athens, Greece and employs high-qualified research personnel, specialised in networking and multimedia technologies. The laboratory has been active for more than a decade in a number of national and european research projects, following the reputation of the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunication in the global research communities. In this context, it maintains close collaboration with Greek and international partners, both industrial and academic. The research achievements of the laboratory are refelected in a considerable number of publications in journals and conferences.

The research activities of the laboratory are focused on:

• Next Generation, media-oriented network architectures based on technology convergence
• Digital Video Broadcasting platforms (DVB-T/T2, DVB-S/S2, DVB-H) for broadcast and Interactive Services
• Real-time network adaptation and dynamic resource allocation for multimedia provisioning
• End-to-end QoS mechanisms
• Cross-layer management in integrated-services satellite networks based on DVB-S2
• IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and IMS-based management of multimedia services
• Network- and Perceived-Quality of Service analysis

The lab pioneered in 2001 by developing the first digital television platform to support fully interactive services in Greece (and one of the first ones in Europe).

See also

• Atmospheric dispersion modelling
• List of atmospheric dispersion models
• Czech Hydrometeorological Institute
• Finnish Meteorological Institute
• List of nuclear reactors
• List of research institutes in Greece
• Met Office, the UK meteorological service
• National Center for Atmospheric Research
• NERI, the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark
• NILU, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research
• UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee
• UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau

References

1. ^ Turner, D.B. (1994). Workbook of atmospheric dispersion estimates: an introduction to dispersion modeling (2nd Edition ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 1-56670-023-X.  www.crcpress.com
2. ^ Beychok, M.R. (2005). Fundamentals Of Stack Gas Dispersion (4th Edition ed.). author-published. ISBN 0-9644588-0-2.  www.air-dispersion.com

External links

• NCSR Demokritos website (in Greek)
• Environmental Research Laboratory official website
• Website of the Media Networks Laboratory
• Website devoted to the DETRACT dispersion modeling system
• Website devoted to the DIPCOT dispersion model