Christos Papanikolaou was born in Athens in 1966 and graduated from Athens College in 1985. He holds all his degrees from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens: an undergraduate degree from the Department of Physics, a post-graduate degree (Natural Sciences in Education) from the Department of Primary Education, and a PhD from the Department of Physics. Since 1999, he has been working as a Physics teacher at Athens College. In September 2020, he was appointed General Coordinator of the School Units of the Hellenic-American Educational Foundation. Prior to this appointment, he was Head of the Science Laboratories and Coordinator for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, as well as Deputy Director of Athens College Junior High School for seven years.

His main interest lies in Physics Education Research (PER). He has published papers in scientific journals (American Journal of Physics, Physical Review Physics Education Research) and has given lectures and presented posters at international (AAPT, GIREP) and PanHellenic conferences. Additionally, he was a member of the team that drafted the recent High School Physics Curriculum (Government Gazette, 1/2015).

He is married to Irini Vachlioti since 2008 and the father of one child.