Resume

Curriculum Vitae

Personal	Name:	Zoe Cournia
Details	Address:	Sterling Chemistry Laboratory Yale University 06511 CT, USA
	email: web:	zoe.cournia (at) yale.edu http://zarbi.chem.yale.edu/~zoe	Tel: +1 203 432 6288 Fax: +1 203 432 6144

Education
10/2006 - date 01/2002 - 12/2006 09/1996 - 09/2001	Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Biochemistry, Yale University with Professor W.L. Jorgensen PhD, Computational Molecular Biophysics, IWR, University of Heidelberg, Germany Title of Thesis: “Structure and Dynamics of Biomembranes containing Cholesterol and other Biologically-Important Sterols. A computational perspective.” Supervisor: Prof. Dr. J.C. Smith Diploma in Chemistry, National University of Athens (Very Good)
1999 - 2000 1989 - 1995	Diploma Thesis, Dept. of Physical Chemistry. Title of Thesis: "Glass-like behavior in supercritical fluids: The effect of critical slowing down on solute dynamics using molecular dynamics simulations". Supervisor: Prof. Dr. J. Samios B' Tositseio Arsakeio Lykeio Ekalis Highschool, Athens, Greece

Teaching
2004-date	Project Supervision (click for more info) 1. Synthetic Hydrogenase Mimicry: Force-Field Development and Molecular Dynamics Simulations 2. Force Field Development and Modeling of the Lipids and Bacteriorhodopsin in the Purple Membrane
WS 2005/2006	Tutor for “Molecular Dynamics Simulations” Faculty of Biology, Heidelberg University, Germany
SS 2005	Tutor for "Computer Modelling of Proteins", Faculty of Biology, Heidelberg University, Germany
SS 2004	Tutor for “Mathematics for Biologists” Faculty of Biology. Heidelberg University, Germany
WS 2003/2004	Tutor for "Computer Modelling of Proteins" Faculty of Biology, Heidelberg University, Germany
SS 2003	Tutor for “Molecular Dynamics Simulations" Faculty of Biology, Heidelberg University, Germany
WS 2002/2003	Tutor for “Mathematics for Molecular Biotechnologists” Faculty of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, Heidelberg University, Germany
SS 2002	Tutor for “Computational Physics”, Faculty of Physics, Heidelberg University, Germany

For more information about the contents of these courses click here!

Awards
May 2006	Travel Grant Award from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a lecture tour to present the results of my PhD thesis to: Los Alamos National Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Scripps Research Institute, University of California at Berkeley, University of Florida and Yale University
February 2006	Travel Grant Award to the Jülich Centre for Netron Science Symposium
November 2005	Best student presentation prize in the International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, Athens, Greece
November 1995	First Prize in the II. International Competition: “First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics”, Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, with the paper: “Is NGC 1938 and NGC 1939 a binary cluster?”
March 1994	Participation in “Euroschuola”, Strasbourg, France, representing Greece after the essay competition: “Effects of the Maastricht treaty (1992) in Greece”

Publications

1) X. de Hatten, Z. Cournia, J.C. Smith and N. Metzler-Nolte, “Towards Synthetic Hydrogenase Mimicry: Force-Field Development and Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Novel Ferrocene-Bearing Peptides”, manuscript in preparation

2) Z. Cournia, J.C. Smith and G.M. Ullmann, “Differential Effects of Cholesterol, Ergosterol and Lanosterol in a Dipalmitoyl Phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) membrane: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study”, J. Phys. Chem. B (2006), accepted for publication

3) Z. Cournia, J.C. Smith and G.M. Ullmann, “A molecular mechanics force-field for biologically-important sterols”, J.Comp.Chem., 26 (2005), pp.1383-1399

4) Z. Cournia, G.M. Ullmann and J.C. Smith, “Development and Validation of a Force-Field for Biologically-Important Sterols in Biomembranes”, Lecture Series on Computer and Computational Sciences, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, 4 (20054), pp.949-953

4) A.C. Vaiana, Z. Cournia, I.B.Costescu and J.C.Smith, “AFMM: A molecular mechanics force-field vibrational parametrization program”, Computer Physics Communications, 167 (2005), pp.34-42

5) Z. Cournia, G.M. Ullmann and J.C. Smith, “Molecular Dynamics of Cholesterol in Biomembranes”, Lecture Series on Computer and Computational Sciences, VSP International Science Publishers, 1 (2004), pp.131-135

6) Z. Cournia, A.C. Vaiana, J.C. Smith, G.M. Ullmann, “Derivation of a Molecular Mechanics Force-Field for Cholesterol”, Pure Appl.Chem., 76 (2004), pp.189-196

7) J.C. Smith, Z. Cournia, A.Taly, A.L. Tournier, D.Mihailescu, G.M. Ullmann, “Conformational Changes in Proteins and Membranes”, In: Novel Approaches to the Structure and Dynamics of Liquids: Experiments, Theories and Simulations. Eds. J. Samios, V.A.Durov, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht: (2004) pp.485-502

8) Z. Cournia, “Is NGC 1938 and NGC 1939 a binary cluster?”, Acta Physica Polonica A“, (1995) 88, Supplement, S-23, pp.1-11

Skills
Computing
Operating Systems : DOS, Windows ’95,’98,2000,NT, Linux/UNIX
Modelling software: CHARMM, MOLDEN, NWChem, ISIS Draw, Insight, BOSS, MCPro
· Programming : FORTRAN (77, 90/95, F), Python, HTML
Presenting 14 Conferences & Workshops attended with 7 Invited Talks, 2 Oral and 5 Poster prepsentations (more info) Languages
Greek: Mother Tongue
English: fluent
· June 1993: “ Proficiency in English “ from Cambridge University, Grade C
· 2000: TOEFL Computer-based Test, Score: 287/300
German: fluent
May 2005: „Kleines Deutsche Sprachdiplom“, from Goethe Institute, Grade “befriedigend” (C)
Italian: beginner