[citation needed] The next year he started his graduate studies in the US at the University of Illinois from where he received his master's degree in 1973 and PhD in 1978.

His PhD dissertation was entitled "X and UV radiation from accreting non-magnetic degenerate dwarfs"[4] and it was completed under the supervision of Donald Q.

[5] After a short break to complete his compulsory military service in Greece, Kylafis continued his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech (1979-1981), where he collaborated with Peter Goldreich and contributed to the discovery of the so-called Goldreich-Kylafis effect.

[6] He then moved as a member to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1981-1984), where he collaborated with John N. Bahcall on topics related to radiative transfer in dusty disk galaxies.

[12] The scientists who have been awarded the Lectureship are: Kylafis has contributed to topics related to the production and transfer of radiation in spiral galaxies,[7] in accretion disks around neutron stars and black holes,[20] as well as in astrophysical MASERs.