Loukas Koutsokeras has taken his first diploma from the department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Ioannina. He obtained a joint PhD (co-tutelle) between the department of Materials Science and Engineering (University of Ioannina, Greece) and the department of ´Physique et Mécanique des Matériaux´ (Université de Poitiers). The area of his doctorate studies was the structural and electronic characterization of transition metal nitrides in thin films.