Nikos Pelekanos received the Solar Innovation 2010 prize for his proposal "III-V nanowires for next generation photovoltaics." The prize was awarded by the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Sources Commission.

Pelekanos, who shared the prize with two more scientists, received a PhD from Brown University in the United States and worked as a researcher in France for roughly ten years, as well as at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

He is now a professor at the Materials Science and Technology Department of the University of Crete, and member of the Foundation for Research and Technology –Hellas (FORTH), heartquarted in Heraklion, Crete.