Collaborators

Collaborators

Eri Antaloudaki- Data Manager

MSc Eri Antaloudaki is a PhD student in the University of Crete, Department of Biology, and works in the Natural History Museum of Crete, Department of Botany. Her main research interests focus on biodiversity and taxonomy of plants, and more specifically she is interested in Cretan flora. Her scientific field also includes molecular phylogenetics and phylogeography of plants, as well as field research on Cretan and Greek plant species. Moreover, she has studied tropical field botany in Belize and has conducted field research on tropical biodiversity on Belize. In LifeWatchGreece she is employed as the Data Manager of Botanical data.

Antonios Avgoustinos - Data Manager

Dr Antonios Avgoustinos is a post doc researcher in the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management (University of Patras, Agrinion, Greece).
His main research interests focus on population genetics, cytogenetics and symbiosis in insects of economic importance. More specifically, his scientific field includes development and application of genetic and molecular tools (such as microsatellites) for the analysis of natural populations of different Tephritidae species and symbiotic studies regarding the reproductive parasite Wolbachia. Currently he is also involved in studies including the characterization of the gut and reproductive symbiota in different Tephritidae and tsetse flies. He has published 18 peer reviewed scientific articles and participated in a number of international and national conferences. He is reviewer for eight international peer review journals. He has actively been involved in 9 research programs, either as PhD candidate or as a post doc researcher (five national, three IAEA-funded projects, including two CRP projects, and one European Commission research program). He has been granted with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation for his PhD studies in ‘Genetics’. In LifewatchGreece he is employed as Data Manager in Biological diversity.

Evangelia Avramidou - Data Manager on forestry ecosystems

Dr. Evangelia Avramidou is a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her main research interests focus on plant biodiversity, population genetics, gene mapping and epigenetics. Her scientific field includes DNA molecular markers, DNA sequencing and DNA analysis in general. She has worked on techniques for population genetic and epigenetic structure by applying many types of molecular markers (MSAP, SSR, AFLP, ISSR, DNA sequencing) in many forest and agricultural species. She has published three scientific papers and participated in many international conferences. She was awarded with a PhD scholarship (2010-2013) by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and the Hellenic National Funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: “Heracleitus II. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund”. She has participated in a Summer School of COST Action FP1202 “Strengthening conservation: a key issue for adaptation of marginal/peripheral populations of forest trees to climate change in Europe (MaP-FGR)”, and in a training research visit in the frame of the FP7 European project: “Trees4Future”. In Lifewatch Greece, she is employed as Data manager for forest and plant species.

Tilemachos Bourtzis - Legal support

Dr. Tilemachos Bourtzis holds a PhD on the field of International Law of the Sea by Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. His main research interests are Law of the Sea, International Environmental Law and Environmental Policy and Management. His scientific field includes research activities of the subjects of marine research regime and regulation, marine environmental protection law and policy, the regime of marine bioprospecting beyond national jurisdiction and technology effects on Law of the Sea regime. He has contributed in collective volumes on Environmental Policy and Law, participated in 4 international conferences and published in the scientific journal of the International Hydrographic Organization. He has participated in numerous European and National Research Programs, in managerial and research positions. He was granted for the Bilateral Greek German Scientific Cooperation Program in 2011. In LifewatchGreece he is employed as Researcher on Biodiversity Policy and Law issues.

Panagiotis Damianidis - Data Manager on marine data

Panagiotis Damianidis is a biologist with an MSc in Aquaculture and Hydrobiology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His research interests include the biodiversity of marine benthos, with focus on the ecology and population dynamics of the macrobenhic invertebrates. He has worked on the taxonomy and ecology of marine invertebrates in the mid- and sublittoral zones and also from brackish waters. He also studied the biometric relationships and allometry of invertebrate discards from trawlers. He has worked on field studies on the distribution and population assessment of edible molluscs and other taxa in the North and South Aegean Sea. He has published 7 scientific papers and more than 30 contributions in national and international conferences. He has participated in nine regional projects, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and other state authorities. He has also worked as Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology (TEI Thessaloniki) in the laboratory courses of Shellfish Fisheries and Management and Shellfish Farming. In LifewatchGreece he is employed as Data Manager.

Panagiotis Dimitriou-Nikolakis - Data Manager on marine data

Panagiotis Dimitriou’s main research field is Marine Biology and more specifically Benthic Ecology. His scientific field includes macrofauna, benthic ecological quality indicators, impact of anthropogenic activities on benthic community status. He has proposed a new Ecological Quality Indicator, called BQI-Family that may be used in the context of the European Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which uses macrofaunal data on family level to assess the environmental status of an area. Furthermore he is a member of the Cretacosmos research team and has already participated in 5 large scale mesocosm experiments. Now as a PhD student he studies the effects of Eutrophication and Hypoxia on marine benthic communities and environmental variables. He has published 4 scientific papers and has participated in two research projects (one national and one EU funded). He is currently participating in the “HYPOXIA” project funded by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of Greece in the framework of the “ESPA 2007-2013: Aristeia II” program. Additionally he is a member of the workgroup “Consultant of technical support and assistance of the Special Secretariat for Water, Ministry of Environmental Energy and Climate Change for the implementation of Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/ΕΚ“. In LifewatchGreece he is employed as a Data manager.

Athanasios Evaggelopoulos - Data Manager on marine data

Dr Athanasios Evagelopoulos is a Post Doc Researcher at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean. His major scientific field is marine community ecology. His research has focused mainly on biotic responses to environmental stress gradients and the effects of landscape structure on biotic processes, while his study systems include the phytoplankton, macrofauna and fish communities of marine coastal and transitional waters ecosystems. Also, he has experience in the taxonomy of marine dinoflagellates. He has published 11 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has prepared and given several presentations in scientific conferences. He has participated in the implementation and management of research projects with European (10 projects) and national (5 projects) funding. He has served as a peer reviewer in scientific journals. As an adjunct lecturer, he has taught Biology, Hydrobiology and Marine Ecology courses in a number of undergraduate and graduate programs. In LifewatchGreece he is employed as a Data Manager at the University of the Aegean.

Alexandros Galanidis - Data Manager on plant biodiversity data

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Christos Georgiadis - Data Manager

Dr Chris Georgiadis is a Teaching and Research Assistant at the Department of Biology, University of Athens (UoA). His main research interests focus on insect biodiversity and more specifically on taxonomy, ecology, and evolution of ants. More specifically, he has been acting as an assistant curator for the entomological collection of the Zoological Museum of the University of Athens (ZMUA) curating and cataloguing the collection as well as studying aspects of ant biogeography in Greece and adjacent areas. He has been acting as the Secretary of the Hellenic Zoological Society and has been a member of the organizing committees for 2 international and 2 national conferences on zoogeography. He has participated in several national and international conferences as well as numerous national and international projects (e.g. Pythagoras II, BioCASE, BioMonitoring, etc). He acted as a liaison for the Ministry of Environment during the 2005 Greek Presidency of the EU on aspects of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Multi-Year Programme of Work of the Conference of the Parties (MYPOW-COP). In Lifewatch he is employed as the Data Manager for GBiF Integration.

Themistoklis Giannoulis - Data manager on land vertebrates

Mr Themis Giannoulis is a PhD candidate in the Laboratory of Genetics, Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology. His main research interests are comparative genomics, immunogenetics and molecular phylogeny in the species of Lepus europaeus. His field includes research on population differentiation due to isolation, hybridization and local adaptation, all concerning in the field of genetics. He has been trained in techniques of molecular biology and recently in the use of Next Generation Sequencing data. He has published six scientific papers and participated in several conferences. He is currently participating in two European collaborative projects, he has participated in the WILDTECH programme for two years and in two national projects, concerning species identification and food control. In LifewatchGreece he is employed as a Data Manager.

Aglaia Legaki - Data Manager on marine data

Aglaia Legaki is a researcher in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA). She has studied in the faculty of “Animal Science and Aquaculture” at the Agricultural University of Athens and she is a graduate of the Master course of “Oceanography and Marine Management” of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her scientific fields include research on fish growth under controlled conditions, bivalve population dynamics, molecular analyses of bivalves and benthic ecology. She has published 1 scientific paper and participated in 2 national and 1 international conferences. In LifewatchGreece she is employed as Data Manager.

Dimitrios Lykidis - Data Manager

Dr Dimitrios Lykidis is a post-doc researcher and teaching fellow in the Democritus University of Thrace. His main research interests focus on molecular biology, biochemistry and human genetics. His scientific field includes research on molecular tissue fixation, human disease and cancer diagnostics. He has extensively worked on techniques for nucleic acid and protein extraction for molecular analysis using various types of tissues and cells. Furthermore, he has studied aspects of tissue fixation and has investigated the molecular basis of fixation and the phenomenon of molecular tissue distortion after chemical fixation. He has published 12 scientific papers and participated in several international conferences. He has actively participated in three European projects and two national projects. He has experience on the implementation and management of European and national research projects. He was granted (2010) with an IKY postdoctoral research fund.  He has taught Genetics and Molecular Biology Techniques to undergraduate Molecular Biology & Genetics students at DUTH from 2007 to 2011. He participates in the teaching of Genetics to undergraduate Medical students at DUTH.  In LifeWatch Greece he is employed as a Data Manager.

Zoi Mylona - Data Manager

Zoi Mylona has a BSc degree in Forestry and Natural Environment and has completed her postgraduate studies in the field of Ecological Water Quality and Management at a River Basin Level at the Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Study Program by the Schools of Biology, Geology and Civil Engineering. Her scientific field includes the assessment of the ecological quality of water in accordance with the Water Framework Directive 2000/60 E.C. Her main research interests focus on environmental protection, aquatic ecosystem restoration, ecological quality monitoring, sampling methods and in situ measurements, biotic indices, marine phanerogams, coastal waters pollution (e.g. heavy metals concentration, nutrients), land use, human pressures and impact assessment. She is capable of handling GIS, CORINE CLC 2000, simulation models, IMPRES, DPSIR, SWOT analyses, univariate and multivariate analyses. She is also able to communicate in three foreign languages (English, Spanish and French). Additionally, she has fully organized a one-day congress and has also participated in a national conference. Within the LIFEWATCHGREECE program she is employed as a biodiversity data manager.

Eleni Panagiotou - Data Manager on terrestrial data

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Gabriella Papastefanou - Data Manager

Gabriella Papastefanou is a PhD candidate in the Molecular Systematics and Evolution Laboratory of the Natural History Museum of Crete (NHMC). Her current research interests focus on reptile phylogeny and phylogeography. She obtained a BSc degree in Biology (University of Athens) and completed an MSc in Conservation Biology (University of Crete). She has gathered experience on various levels of biodiversity during her studies and following participation in projects. Namely, she has worked on marine and terrestrial arthropod taxonomy and ecology, as well as avian genetic, population (Greece-Cyprus 2007-2013 Programme) and species diversity. She was also involved in developing a virtual single –access plant key (ARK4-A Heritage Library Programme), collaborating with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in order to disseminate biological knowledge to the public. In LifewatchGreece she manages collection data belonging to the Zoological Museum of the University of Athens (ZMUA).

Panagiota Paranou-Lioliou - Data Manager on terrestrial data

Panagiota Paranou- Lioliou has accomplished a Bachelor degree in Environmental Management and Natural Resources of the University of Ioannina and has a Postgraduate degree in Environmental Biology, at the School of Biology, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her main scientific interests focus on restoration of terrestrial ecosystems, desertification, land uses, biotic and abiotic indices, protection of the Greek wildlife, conservation of biodiversity and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). She has participated in the European program, LIFE05/ENV/GR/000214, in collaboration with School of Biology (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). The objective of the research was the effort of delimitation of the desertified areas at the basin of Florina – Kozani, via the Geographic Information Systems (QGIS). She has also presented at the 4th National Conference of Companies “Current research trends in ecology” (University of Thessaly), her Master thesis and has participated in the research group of Arcturos for an environmental educational program entitled “Wild-men – Citizens of the future” (Interactive game). In LifewatchGreece she is employed as a biodiversity data manager.

Manos Potiris - Ecosystem modeller

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Panagiota Stathopoulou - Data Manager on microbial diversity data

Dr Panagiota Stathopoulou is currently working as a post doc researcher in the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management based in Agrinio (University of Patras). She received her bachelor degree in Biology from University of Athens and completed her PhD in Microbial Biotechnology at the same university. After that, she worked as a post doc molecular biologist in the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens. Her main research interests include: (a) study of the microbial diversity in various environments using –omic technologies (b) bioprospecting for novel microbial industrial enzymes from extreme environments (c) hydrolytic enzymes (production, purification, biochemical characterization and biotechnological applications). She has worked on a variety of projects concerning the discovery, biosynthesis and production of thermophilic hydrolytic enzymes (lipases, cellulases, xylanases), the consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulosics for ethanol production by F.oxysporum, the study of Minos transposon in A.nidulans, the discovery of potentially therapeutic compounds against protein misfolding diseases and the cultivation of insect symbionts. She has published 6 scientific papers and she is a reviewer in international scientific journals. She has also participated in more than 15 international or national conferences with oral or poster presentations and was a member of the organizing committee at 2 of them. In LifewatchGreece she is employed as a Data Manager.

Irini Tsikopoulou - Data Manager on marine data

Irini Tsikopoulou studied Biology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in her undergraduate thesis she focused on the mollusc biodiversity of Thermaikos Gulf. She continued her MSc studies at the University of Crete specializing in marine ecology and more specifically in the effects of organic enrichment in microphytobenthic communities using pigment analysis and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques. Now, as a PhD candidate at the Biology Department of University of Crete her scientific interests are orientated towards the analysis of macrofaunal and microphytobenthic communities in marine sediments in relation to geochemical factors and the ecological role that microphytobenthos plays in organically enriched and hypoxic systems. Until now, she has participated in the E.U. funded research project “MedSeA” as a member of the research team conducting an experiment on the impact of acidification on Mediterranean waters and in the workgroup “Consultant of technical support and assistance of the Special Secretariat for Water, Ministry of Environmental Energy and Climate Change for the implementation of Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/ΕU”. In LifewatchGreece she is employed as Data Manager.

Marilena Tsompanou - Data Manager on marine data

Marilena Tsompanou is a Marine Biologist (BSc, MSc) in the Institute of Oceanography of the HCMR. She studied Marine Science at the University of Aegean and she holds a master in Oceanography from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her main research interests focus on benthic, coastal and lagoon ecology, marine biodiversity, impact assessment, marine protected areas, GIS applications, spatial planning. She has worked in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) mainly with macroinvertebrates and biotic indices. Also she has worked at the Laboratory of Hygiene and Ecotoxicology, Department of Biological Sciences, "Federico II" University in Naples where she did a variety of ecotoxicological tests with the use of biomarkers. In LifewatchGreece she is employed as a Data Manager.