Thymis studied Mining and Metallurgical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens and received his PhD degree in Thermodynamics in the same school in 2006. Since 2008 he has been working in the Laboratory of Metallurgy as a postdoctoral researcher focusing on sustainable process development, CO2 mitigation strategies, energy analysis and resource utilization efficiency.
He is involved in the research management and coordination of several collaborative large scale research projects (ENEXAL, EURARE, SCALE, ENSUREAL, RemovAl, BIORECOVER, AlSiCaL, SISAL PILOT, HARARE, ReActiv) most of which focus on Bauxite Residue valorisation or alumina production. He has more than 80 research publications in journals and conference proceeding with more than 1,000 citations and an h-index of 19. Since 2015, he cooperates with MYTILINEOS - Metals as a senior consultant in R&D projects. He was a recipient of the TMS Light Metals Subject Award – Alumina & Bauxite in 2017 and since 2022 he is on the ICSOBA’s board of directors.