Committees

Assistant Professor (LTU), Biochemical Process Engineering
Dr. Alok Patel is an Assistant Professor in Biochemical Process Engineering at Luleå University of Technology (LTU), Sweden. He earned his PhD from IIT Roorkee, India, in 2017 and later joined LTU’s Biochemical Process Engineering group. His research focuses on converting organic matter into bioenergy, biofuels, and biochemicals.
Dr. Patel has been awarded 14 projects, including six as Principal Investigator (PI) and eight as Co-PI, with a 4 million SEK grant from the Swedish Research Council Formas. He also collaborates on projects funded by EU Horizon and national agencies. He leads microalgal-based biorefinery efforts at LTU and supervises master’s students, PhD candidates, and postdocs.
A strong advocate for global collaboration, he mentors international interns through ERASMUS and IAESTE. With over 90 publications and three books, he also serves as an Associate Editor and editorial board member for several peer-reviewed journals, including BMC Biotechnology., BMC Microbiology, Biomass and Bioenergy.
E-Mail: alok.kumar.patel@ltu.se

Proceedings is an open access journal dedicated to publishing findings resulting from conferences, workshops, and similar events. The conference organizers and proceedings editors are responsible for managing the peer-review process and selecting papers for conference proceedings. Proceedings (ISSN 2504-3900) is a journal that publishes articles and reports resulting from conferences, including those hosted at Sciforum. Published items are approved by the conference committee and original research content is peer reviewed. Conferences may be in any field. Those wishing to run a conference or have the proceedings covered by the journal are welcome to contact the editorial office.

Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/proceedings

Suschem GR is the Greek chapter of the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem), established to promote innovation and sustainability in the chemical and process industries in Greece. Its mission is to encourage collaboration among industry, academia, research institutions, policymakers, and wider society to develop innovative chemical solutions that address environmental challenges, improve resource efficiency, and align with the principles of the European Green Deal and the transition to a circular economy. By engaging diverse stakeholders, Suschem GR ensures that its initiatives have a broad societal impact and contribute to a sustainable future. The founding members of SUSCHEM GR comprise a dynamic alliance of leading organizations from Greece’s industrial, academic, and research communities, united by a shared commitment to advancing sustainable chemistry and driving innovation at the national and European levels. Suschem GR is currently engaged in the IRISS project which is a Coordination and Support Action project within the research and innovation funding programme Horizon Europe, aiming to connect, synergize and transform the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) community in Europe and globally, towards a lifecycle approach, with integrated safety, climate neutrality, circularity, and functionality aspects already at an early stage of design of materials and products, including their production processes. Suschem GR leads one of the four Regional Nodes—the South-Western Node of NTPs and FEMs—playing a central role in building the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) community in this region, through networking and dissemination activities.

Website: https://suschem-gr.org/

Processes is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal on processes/systems in chemistry, biology, material, energy, environment, food, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, automation control, catalysis, separation, particle and allied engineering fields published monthly online by MDPI. The Systems and Control Division of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE S&C Division) and the Brazilian Association of Chemical Engineering (ABEQ) are affiliated with Processes and their members receive discounts on the article processing charges. Please visit Society Collaborations for more details. Processes (ISSN 2227-9717) provides an advanced forum for process/system-related research in chemistry, biology, material, energy, environment, food, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, automation control, catalysis, separation, particle and allied engineering fields. The journal publishes reviews, research papers and communications. Our aim is to encourage researchers to publish their experimental, theoretical and computational results in as much detail as necessary. There is no restriction on the maximum length of the papers or number of figures and tables.

Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes

Professor Emeritus (UCLouvain), Biotechnology and Bioengineering
Spiros N. Agathos is Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium since 2015. He is also Chair Professor and Director of Marine Bioengineering at Harbin Engineering University, Qingdao Innovation & Development Base, China since 2023. He served as the Rector and President of the Governing Board of Yachay Tech University, the first research-intensive university in Ecuador and the Andean Region of South America (2019) and as the Inaugural Dean of Biological Sciences and Engineering at Yachay Tech (2015-2019). Before that he was Professor (1993-2015) and Chair of Bioengineering (1998-2010) at the Catholic University of Louvain. He obtained his Dipl. Eng. in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, his M. Eng. in the same field from McGill University, and his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Agathos was a faculty member at Western University (University of Western Ontario) in Canada (1982-1985) and at Rutgers University in the United States (1985-1993) and has served as a visiting professor in Europe and the Americas. He has published over 200 articles, 5 books and 4 patents. He has received more than 70 competitive grants, is Editor or Editorial Board member of many journals and serves as member or chair of grant panels as well as on international committees for science and technology policy and for institutional accreditation. He is advising governments, agencies, transnational bodies and industry, while his former students and postdocs hold significant academic and industrial positions across the globe. He is an Ordinary Member of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea), a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens, an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), the International Water Association (IWA), the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Society for Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (SIMB). He is the recipient of the 2019 Waksman Outstanding Teaching Award for his role as mentor and educator. His research interests lie at the interface between Life Sciences and Engineering and include: microbial and animal cell cultures in bioreactors, biocatalyst development, bioprocess optimization, bioreactor design and scale-up, pollutant biodegradation and site bioremediation, microbial ecogenomics, and biotechnology for sustainability.
E-Mail: spiros.agathos@uclouvain.be

Professor, Dean of the School ChEnvEng (TUC), Design of Environmental Processes
Dr. Petros Gikas is Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece, Director of the “Design of Environmental Processes Laboratory” and Vise Representative of the Scholl of Chemical and Environmental Engineering to the Research Committee of the Technical University of Crete. His research interests are focused on municipal, industrial and agricultural waste and wastewater management. He is specifically active in the design of novel wastewater treatment processes with emphasis in low cost – low energy treatment processes and on water reclamation and reuse applications. He is also working on energy recovery from biosolids and municipal solid waste, utilizing thermal or biological processes. He is also engaged in research for the development of algorithms for integrated water recourses management (with emphasis on water reuse). Since 2005 he teaches the courses “Design of Environmental Processes and Environmental Impact Assessment Ι & ΙΙ” and “Physical Chemistry”. He also teaches the postgraduate courses “Advanced Wastewater Treatment Technologies”, “Biorefineries-Waste Valorization” and “Environmental Impact Assessment”. During 2014-2020 he was teaching the postgraduate course “Wastewater management” at the Hellenic Open University. During the academic year 2006-2007 he visited the University of California (UC), Davis, USA, where he was engaged in environmental research at the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He also thought at the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering of UC Davis the postgraduate course “Management and Treatment of Wastewater”. Dr. Gikas has scientific collaboration with the Department of Chemical Engineering University College, London, UK, with the Faculty of Engineering, University of Savoie-Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France, with the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Reunion, France, with the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biological and Agricultural Engineering UC Davis, California, with the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Southern Methodists University, Texas, with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Columbia University, New York, with the Department of Environmental Engineering, Polytechnic of Bari, Italy with the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), Zurich, Switzerland and with the Technological Center of Energy and the Environment (CETENMA), Murcia, Spain, with the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Botswana, Gaborone, with the Department of Civil Engineering, Kwazulu-Natal University, Durban, South Africa, with the Faculty of Chemical Technologies and Environmental Engineering, National Polytechnic University of Armenia, Yerevan, with the Faculty of Engineering, National University of Laos, Vientiane, with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand, with the Department of Environmental Sciences and Renewable Resources University of Chile, Santiago, and with Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, Seattle, USA. During his academic carrier, Dr. Gikas has supervised a number of European and Nationally funded projects, and various projects in collaboration with the industry and with public enterprises.

E-Mail: pgikas@tuc.gr

Technical Coordinator (IDENER), Molecular and Systems Biology
Dr Manuel Salvador holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbial Biotechnology from the University of Seville. He has worked on plastic upcycling using Synthetic Biology at the University of Surrey and joined IDENER company in 2019 as an R&D engineer and currently as R&D Manager. He has authored/co-authored 15 technical papers and holds 1 patent.
E-Mail: manuel.salvador@idener.ai

Professor (USAL), Process design and optimization
He is a professor at the University of Salamanca in Spain in the department of Chemical Engineering. His research area lies in the field of process design and optimization using a hybrid approach from the experimental evaluation to reactors and other particular equipment to mathematical modeling and optimization of the entire flowsheet in particular in the field of biofuel production processes. From the teaching standpoint, he is in charge of Industrial Chemistry in the bachelor degree and Process simulation and Integration at Master and PhD levels apart from teaching at transport phenomena and unit operations labs.
E-Mail: mariano.m3@usal.es

Professor, Head of Unit of Process Control and Informatics (NTUA)
Harry Sarimveis received a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 1990 and an MSc and PhD in control engineering and machine learning from Texas A&M University in 1990 and 1992, respectively. In September 2000, he became a Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering at NTUA. Since 2016, he has been a Full Professor and heads the “Unit of Process Control and Informatics.” His research interests include mathematical modelling and optimization, automatic control, data analytics and machine learning, and cheminformatics. He has co-authored more than 130 scientific papers.E-Mail: hsarimv@central.ntua.gr

Assistant Professor (AUA) Food Processing and Bioprocesing
Dr Aikaterini Papadaki has graduated from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Agricultural University of Athens (AUA, Greece). She holds an MSc in Human Nutrition (scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation – IKY) and a PhD in Food Science and Human Nutrition (AUA, Greece). Her research focuses on the bioprocess development through the circular valorization of food industry by-products towards the production of high-added value products. Also, her research activity includes processing techniques for the successful integration of biotechnological products, and other bioactive ingredients, into novel food systems, such as edible films and oleogels, and the evaluation of their physicochemical and mechanical properties. She has participated in 9 research projects as postdoctoral research assistant. Since 2021, she has been serving as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology at Ionian University and has participated as a collaborating team member in 3 projects. He has designed and supervised more than 20 undergraduate students, while currently she participates in the three-member examination committee and in the co-supervision of 3 doctoral theses. Dr Papadaki has been invited to review scientific publications in several scientific journals, while she has served as guest editor in Special Issues related to fermentation technology, bioeconomy and application of food microbiome. Dr Papadaki has published 45 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals (5.7 average I.F., >1520 citations and h-index 21 – Scopus), 4 book chapters and more than 50 oral and poster presentations in national and international conferences proceedings.E-Mail: kpapadaki@ionio.gr

Researcher (CNR) Chemical characterization of unknown complex mixture
Graduated with honors in Chemistry at the University of Bari in 2001, he obtained a PhD in “Enzymatic Synthesis and Applied Chemistry” in 2005. Senior Researcher at the National Research Council – Institute for Water Research (CNR-IRSA) he has been Principal Investigator and/or Coordinator in over ten international and national projects. The main research topics covered concern the chemical characterization of waste biomasses (municipal organic waste, sewage sludge, vegetable and animal oils) and the identification of the corresponding chemical potential, with design/optimization of innovative and sustainable processes aimed at resource recovery, implementing the “Circular Economy” scenario with new solutions. Co-author of 84 peer reviewed articles published in international journals, 7 book chapters and three national patents (over 2700 citations, H-index 30, Scopus).E-Mail: carlo.pastore@cnr.it

Associate Professor (DUTH) Valorisation of wastes and biomass for the production of energy and high added value products
My scientific research has been focused on the development of bioprocess and their application for valorizing organic wastes/wastewaters and biomass for the production of energy and materials. Moreover, the bioprocesses are studied as the core technologies in a biorefinery concept which also involves physico-chemical and thermo-chemical processes for the integrated management of biomass and wastes within the circular economy. The study includes the design – operation of bioreactors and the simulation of the processes. I am an editor in Water Science and Technology, guest editor of the special issue of Journal of Cleaner production titled “Food Waste: Challenges and Opportunity for the Emerging Bio-Economy” (2018), Co-Editor of Sewage Treatment Plants: Economic Evaluation of Innovative Technologies for Energy Efficiency, reviewer in 17 international journals and participated or chair the scientific and/or organizing committees of 8 international conferences. I have been a panel member for the evaluation of 7 PhD thesis and a panel member for the evaluation of research proposals submitted under the call of the Portuguese public funding agency for R&D (FCT) entitled «Stimulus of Scientific Employment, Individual Support» in the category of “Environmental Biotechnology and Engineering” (2018-2021).E-Mail: astamat@env.duth.gr

Senior Researcher (RISE) Leader of RISE High-throughput Centre
Payam Ghiaci is the Leader of High-throughput Centre at Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) for the unit Processum,directing strain development activities as a complementary module to the scale-up activities all centralized at RISE Bioeconomy Arena, Örnsköldsvik Sweden. The Arena is part of the High Coast Innovation Park at the heart of the Swedish forest industry where world class infrastructure with strong local and global network lays the right foundation for innovative bio-centred companies to grow. Having received his PhD degree at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), Payam spent 5 years as a researcher at University of Gothenburg, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Germany) and University of Rovira I Virgili (Spain) advancing on high-throughput microbial screening and evolution techniques for industrially relevant phenotypes, especially the food sector. He also has 5 years of entrepreneurial experience in data-driven life sciences products.E-Mail: payam.ghiaci@ri.se

W. H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (MIT)
He is the holder of the W. H. Dow Professorship of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He graduated from NTUA in 1973 with the Diploma of Chemical Engineering. In 1975 he obtained his M.S. from the University of Florida and, three years later, his Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota.
He currently works in Cambridge, at the Department of Chemical Engineering of MIT, focusing on biotechnology, specifically metabolic and biochemical engineering. He is the Director of the Metabolic Engineering Laboratory. His group of approximately 20 graduate students and post-docs conducts research on various projects aiming at the development of biological production routes to chemical products and biofuels. Another program is investigating cancer as metabolic disease.
During his tenure, he has trained and supervised more than 150 Graduate and Post-Doctoral students; he presently serves on the Editorial Boards of 12 scientific journals and currently serves as Editor-in Chief of Metabolic Engineering and co-Editor–in-Chief of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.
During the years, Professor Stephanopoulos received many honors. Among others, in 2010 he received the George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology and the ACS E. V. Murphree Award. From AIChE he received the R.H. Wilhelm Award (2001), the Founders award (2007) and the William Walker Award (2014). In 2011 he received the Eni Prize in Renewable and non-Conventional Energy, in 2013 the John Fritz Medal from the American Association of Engineering Societies, in 2016 the Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels and in 2017 the Novozymes Award for Excellence in Biochemical and Chemical Engineering. Professor Stephanopoulos was elected in 2003 to the US National Academy of Engineering and in 2011 as Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens. He has Honorary degrees from the Danish Technical University and NTUA. In 2016 he served as President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.Research Website
E-Mail: gregstep@mit.edu

Professor (AUA), Laboratory of Food Process Engineering
Dr Apostolis Koutinas graduated in 1997 from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Patras (Greece). He was awarded the degree of PhD in 2002 in the research field of Biochemical Engineering at the Department of Chemical Engineering at UMIST (Manchester, UK). From 2002 until 2008, he worked as Research Associate at the Satake Centre for Grain Process Engineering (School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, University of Manchester, UK; formerly UMIST). Since 2009, he has been working as member of staff at the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. ince 2011, Dr Koutinas has participated in more than 28 research projects funded by national and international funding agencies (e.g. German – Greek and China – Greek Bilateral R&D Cooperation programmes, Prima, FP7, H2020, BBI JU, Life). One of his achievements involves industrial funding from the petroleum company Petrobras (Brazil) in collaboration with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). In 2013, Dr Koutinas was awarded a Special Visiting Researcher Fellowship under the Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program Ciências sem Fronteiras. Dr Koutinas has served as working group leader in two COST actions focusing on food supply chain waste valorisation (EUBis) and process development for lignin valorisation (LignoCOST). He has published more than 135 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 17 book chapters and 1 edited book (h-index 38, Scopus). He has participated in more than 170 international scientific conferences, workshops, summer schools and educational seminars with 28 invited presentations in international events in several countries including India, Brazil, China, Colombia, UK, Spain, Argentina and Italy among others. He has been invited to teach 8 fast-track MSc courses in Spain, Argentina and Brazil. Dr Koutinas has supervised 7 graduated PhD students and 29 graduated MSc students. He currently serves as Editor of the Biochemical Engineering Journal (Elsevier).

E-Mail: akoutinas@aua.gr

Professor (AUTH), Systems engineering: physico-chemical, energy coversion processes, mechanical systems
Panagiotis Seferlis is a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering in the Machine Dynamics Laboratory of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). Since 1999, he has been collaborating in various research fields at the Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute (CPERI), in the Process System Design and Implementation (PSDI) laboratory, of the Centre for Research and Technology – Hellas (CERTH). He holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from AUTH and has received his Ph.D. from McMaster University in Canada. Before joining AUTH in 2006, he served as a researcher at CPERI/CERTH, worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Delft Univeristy of Technology in the Netherlands and as a simulation analyst in Honeywell Hi-spec in Canada. His current research activities focus on the field of systems engineering with emphasis on the physico-chemical, and energy coversion processes as well as mechanical systems. Within this framework he has developed innovative methods and technologies through the deployment of holistic approaches in problem solving and the creation of highly performing computational tools, in design, optimisation and control of processes and mechanical systems. The main achievements of his research are as follows: Development of an innovative solvent and process system for CO2 capture with absorption from industrial streams (strong collaboration with industry at the national and international level); Development of power management and control technologies in energy conversion systems using renewable energy sources (implementation in pilot-plant units); Development of a novel working medium for absorption refrigeration cycles (application pending at US Patent Office); Development of control systems for autonomous flight of fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) (European and national project with strong impact on the defense industry). Panagiotis Seferlis’ experience in administration has been acquired by his double tenure as Head of the School of Mechanical Engineering (2015-20), as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering (3 years) and member of the AUTH Senate for 5 years. In addition, he serves as a deputy member of the Board of Directors of Alexander Zone of Innovation S. A. At CPERI/CERTH he has been a founding member of the PSDI laboratory and a major contributor to its successful path. He is also a founding member and active participant of the interdisciplinary UAV-integrated Research Center of AUTH.
E-Mail: seferlis@meng.auth.gr

Research Director (CERTH), Process Systems Design and Implementation Lab
Dr. Athanasios Papadopoulos is a Principal Researcher at CERTH. He holds a Ph.D. in Process Systems Engineering from the University of Surrey (UK, 2005) and an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR, 2001). His expertise are in the areas of process and renewable energy systems synthesis, integration and optimization as well as integrated product and process design for applications in chemical, hybrid renewable power generation systems and heat-to-power generation and co-generation systems. In these areas he has developed innovative methods for optimum design of sustainable materials and blends utilized in power generation cycles, separation and reactive separation processes and heat exchange systems. Dr. Papadopoulos has participated in numerous EU and Nationally funded projects as a principal and co-principal investigator and researcher, he has received national and international awards for research in the areas of materials design, organic Rankine cycles and separation process systems (UK, NL, GR), he has been invited in the organizing committees of international conferences such as AICHE, ESCAPE and PRES and in the editorial boards of four international journals, while he has co-authored over 240 scientific papers, including journals, books and conference proceedings.
E-Mail: spapadopoulos@certh.gr

Associate Professor (ICL), Industry 4.0 principles in (bio-) pharmaceutical processes
She works on the development computational tools, such as mathematical models, model-based optimisation and control policies to assist decision-making in: (a) drug discovery, (b) (bio-) pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing, (c) supply chain in personalised medicine and vaccines. Her lab focuses on the adaptation of Industry 4.0 principles in (bio-) pharmaceutical processes. We work on the development of digital twins and control methodologies for process understanding, optimisation and automation.
E-Mail: maria.papathanasiou11@imperial.ac.uk

Donald B. Broughton Professor (PSU), Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology; Systems Engineering
Dr. Costas D. Maranas (b. 1967) is the Donald B. Broughton Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the Aristotle University, Greece in 1990 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in 1995. He has been in the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Penn State since 1995. He is the recipient of the Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of AIChE (2002), the Outstanding Young Investigator Award of the Computing and Systems Technology AIChE Division (2006), the S.V. Sotirchos Lectureship at 6th Panhellenic Chemical Engineering Conference (2007), the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) Premier Research Award (2016) and Outstanding Research Award in (2012). He is a member of a number of journal Editorial Boards including PLOS Computational Biology, BMC Systems Biology, Biotechnology Journal and Metabolic Engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He is a member of advisory/steering committees for PNNL/EMSL and EcoCyc and the “Use-Inspired Research” Lead in the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) DOE center. The C. Marianas group develops and deploys computational framework informed by systems engineering and mathematical optimization to understand, analyze and redesign metabolism and proteins. Research interests include Computational protein design; enzyme and antibody engineering; reconstruction, curation, and analysis of metabolic networks; computational strain design and synthetic biology; metabolism of photosynthetic organisms; metabolism of obligatory anaerobes; modeling of microbial communities; optimization theory and algorithms. He has co-authored over 160 refereed journal publications including a textbook on “Optimization Methods in Metabolic Networks” (2016). He has supervised 29 Ph.D. theses with many group alumni occupying leading positions in industry and academia. He lives in State College, PA with his wife and children.
E-Mail: cdm8@psu.edu

Professor (NTUA), Biochemical Engineering & Environmental Technology
Prof. Gerasimos Lyberatos is currently Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens and a collaborating faculty member of the Institute of Chemical Engineering and High Temperature Chemical Processes (Foundation of Research and Technology Hellas). He obtained his B.S. at M.I.T. and his M.S. and Ph.D. at CALTECH (USA). His research interests are in Biochemical Engineering and Environmental Technologies for liquid and solid waste treatment and valorization. He has over 240 publications in International refereed Journals, and over 330 participations in International Conferences, 9 Chapters in books and two books. He has supervised 45 PhD theses. He has organized three International Conferences. Prof. Lyberatos has been Editor of the Journal of Hazardous Materials (Elsevier) and Associate Editor of Waste and Biomass Valorization (Springer). Since 2014 Professor Lyberatos has also served as City Counselor for the Municipality of Halandri.
E-Mail: lyberatos@chemeng.ntua.gr

Professor (AUTH), Lab. of Chemical & Environmental Technology
Dr. Anastasios Zouboulis is Professor of Chemical & Environmental Technology, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is performing research in the field of water and wastewater treatment technologies, wastewater management, reclamation and reuse. He is author/co-author of more than 350 papers, published in scientific journals and of more than 200 papers published in the proceedings of national & International conferences. Currently, he has an H-index of 59 (according to Scopus) or 74 (according to Google Scholar). He has supervised 18 PhDs (14 finished) and more than 40 M.Sc. Thesis (35 finished) and more than 80 Diploma theses. He has participated in more than 70 national and international research and demonstration projects, funded by E.U. and from local sources (ministries, industries, companies etc.), while he was Scientific Responsible in more than 50 of them, related mainly with the fields of environmental management in general, including wastewater treatment processes, environmental biotechnology, as well as the treatment of industrial solid toxic wastes by the application of appropriate stabilization methods. His international reputation was recognised by his election as (foreign) member in the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2003). During his carrier he has received several prizes and scholarships from national and international organizations. He is also an active consultant for several local industries in the field of environmental protection, a previous national expert for the horizontal activities of FP6 and FP7 (EU), and he is acting often as a reviewer/evaluator for scientific publications, as well as for several EU or other national and international research projects in several countries. He is also member of the Editorial Board of several esteemed scientific journals (e.g. Separation Science & Technology, Water Research, Journal of Hazardous Materials etc.), as well as a member of the Organizing and Scientific Committees of several national and international conferences (over 50).
E-Mail: zoubouli@chem.auth.gr

Associate Professor (UPatras), Design and Engineering of Sustainable Bioprocesses
Georgia Antonopoulou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sustainable Agriculture, School of Agricultural Sciences, of the University of Patras. She has a BSc, an MSc and a PhD in Chemical Engineering (2006). Her research focuses on the design and development of innovative biochemical processes for the treatment and valorization of municipal, agricultural, industrial wastes and residual biomass, through the use of mixed and pure microbial cultures, microbial electrochemical technology and mathematical modeling of anaerobic processes. She is co-author of ~70 scientific papers in peer-reviewed international journals, 9 book chapters, 1 monograph and >100 articles in proceedings of international and national conferences. She has participated as a researcher and coordinator in >25 international and national R&D projects, she is reviewer for >40 international scientific journals and a member of proposal evaluation panels, editorial boards, scientific committees and associations.
E-Mail: geogant@upatras.gr

Senior Lecturer (Imperial), Optimisation and Machine Learning for Process Systems Engineering
I am head of the Optimisation and Machine Learning for Process Systems Engineering group at the Department of Chemical Engineering, and the Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College London. My research focuses on developing and applying computer algorithms from the area of optimization, machine learning and reinforcement learning to engineering systems. The applied branch of my research looks at bioprocess control, optimization and scale-up. I hold a PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge, and received my undergraduate degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I am Co-Director of EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Synthesis & Reaction Technology (rEaCt).
For more detailed information you can refer to my group’s page: optimlpse.co.uk/people/
E-Mail: a.del-rio-chanona@imperial.ac.uk

Reasearcher (RISE), Thermochemical processes and interdisciplinary solutions in circular and bio-based economics
Panagiotis is a holder of Diploma of Chemical Engineering (2012) from the National University of Athens (NTUA) and a Master’s programme in Sustainable Technology (2014) from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). He holds a PhD degree in thermochemical conversion technologies focusing on pyrolysis of waste fractions and feedstock recycling. During his career he has been involved and lead in several research projects both funded from Swedish funding agencies and EU.
E-Mail: panagiotis.evangelopoulos@ri.se

New Technologies & Innovation Analyst (HELLENiQ ENERGY), Renewables and Environment, Exergy Analysis, Life Cycle Analysis, Sustainable Transportation Systems, Alternative Fuels, Scenario Analysis, Energy Research, Low Carbon Cities
She holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, specialized in the field of sustainable transportation systems, alternative energy and new technologies. She works at Helleniq Energy as a New Technologies & Innovation Analyst and is a visiting Lecturer at Aarhus University (Dept. of Business Development and Technology). Responsible for the management of approximately 20 research programs, supported by National and European funds, focused on alternative energy sources, biofuels, hydrogen and energy efficiency. Responsible for market analysis and feasibility studies, following competitive business trends and conducting cost-benefit analyses for the Group’s new activities. She has published 2 books in the field of electromobility and exergy analysis of renewable energy systems, as well as more than 150 scientific papers for journals and conferences.
E-Mail: enanaki@helleniq.gr

R&D Manager (CNano), organometallic chemistry, materials, catalysis
Dr Alex Grigoropoulos obtained his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D degree in Chemistry from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Over the last 15 years, he has been involved in projects across various fields of inorganic chemistry, such as organometallic chemistry, molecular magnetism, crystalline porous materials (MOFs, zeolites), homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis (hydrogenation, isomerisation, hydroformylation, electrocatalysis, biomass conversion), computational chemistry and X-Ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES-EXAFS). Before joining Creative Nano as the R&D manager, he worked as a post-doc for ten years in the US (3 years), Greece (1 year) and the UK (6 years). Dr Grigoropoulos has published 24 papers in peer-review journals and 1 book chapter.
E-Mail: a.grigoropoulos@creativenano.gr

Associate Professor (UNIROMA), chemical-physical treatments of waste/sediments, CO2 sequestration, bio-H2, bio-CH4
Graduated in Environmental and Land Engineering at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering. Before taking up her position as a Researcher in 2006, she held two research grants and research and teaching contracts at Sapienza, University of Rome. She teaches Environmental Health Engineering in the Degree Course in Environmental, Land and Resources Engineering (Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering) and in the Master’s Degree Course in Health Professions of Prevention Sciences (Faculty of Medicine). She has also taught in Solid Waste Treatment Plants. She is a member of international research groups, including the International Working Group pHOENIX on the management of incineration residues, of which she is one of the founders, and ISCOWA.
E-Mail: raffaella.pomi@uniroma1.it

Associate Professor (UNIROMA), Treatment and reuse of solid waste, CO2 sequestration, Biohydrogen, Decontamination
Alessandra Polettini is Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Here she is lecturer of “Sanitary and Environmental Engineering” and “Solid Waste Treatment” in the Undergraduate and Master courses in Environmental Engineering. Her research interests include: the treatment and recycling of residues from the thermal treatment of waste, the environmental behavior of waste materials, anaerobic digestion of organic wastes and treatment of contaminated dredged sediments. She has coauthored over 150 scientific papers that have been published in international journals and conference proceedings.
E-Mail: alessandra.polettini@uniroma1.it

Associate Professor (DTU), Environmental Engineering
Current research focuses on Biorefinery Conversions and on creating new knowledge for development of innovative and cost-efficient processes for production of chemicals, materials and biofuels from biomasses and industrial effluents by (i) Harnessing the potential of mixed microbial consortia by optimizing the selection and enrichment process as well as the fermentation operating strategy, (ii) Providing knowledge on bioconversion kinetics of pure and mixed microbial cultures to be applied for process modeling and optimization, (iii) Developing innovative process concepts for enhancing the bioconversion efficiency and improving the economics by applying cost-efficient pretreatment methods and membrane-based downstream processing, (iv) Designing and experimentally evaluating novel combined bioenergy and biorefinery concepts.
E-Mail: hnga@kt.dtu.dk

Professor Emeritus (GATECH), Environmental Engineering
Dr. Spyros G. Pavlostathis is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Engineering at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. A recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, Dr. Pavlostathis completed his MS and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at Cornell University after obtaining his Diploma in Agricultural Engineering at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. He is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the Hellenic Open University, Greece. Dr. Pavlostathis is a Board Certified Environmental Engineer Member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES), and a Fellow of International Water Association (IWA), Water Environment Federation (WEF), and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Dr. Pavlostathis is internationally recognized for his research and expertise in the areas of environmental biotechnology and bioprocess engineering. His recent research focused on bioenergy production via co-digestion of high-strength waste and municipal sludge, as well as bioelectrochemical systems for hydrogen production and the upgrade of anaerobic digestion biogas. His research was funded by NSF, EPA, USDA, DOE, USGS, DOD, SERDP, EPRI, NY State ERDA, State of Georgia TIP, as well as numerous industrial foundations, municipalities and companies. Dr. Pavlostathis has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and authored over 250 publications including books or book chapters. Dr. Pavlostathis has organized or chaired over 50 conferences and conference sessions and frequently serves as a consultant, invited speaker and panelist on behalf of city, county, state and federal agencies in the US and abroad. An active member of several professional organizations, Dr. Pavlostathis has served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Environmental Engineering, Water Science & Technology, Biotechnology Letters, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Water Environment Research, Water Quality Research Journal, and Environment International.
E-Mail: spyros.pavlostathis@ce.gatech.edu

Associate Professor (UNIMIB), General And Inorganic Chemistry
Dr rer. nat. Dipl.-Chem. Heiko Lange (HL), born in 1978 in Germany, believes in the benefits of a multisectoral broad academic, scientific education and transdisciplinary science education. Since 2021, he holds a position as Associate Professor for General Chemistry at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Milano-Bicocca. Before coming to Milan, he stayed for a brief period as Assistant Professor for Organic Chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Naples ‘Federico II’. Prior to this, in 2017, he was appointed Assistant Professor for General Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, where he also entered the Italian academic system as senior research associate in 2012, joining the group of Prof. Claudia Crestini. His latest research includes the development of natural polyphenol-based nanostructured functional particles, capsules and fibres for controlled and targeted drug delivery purposes and the structural characterization of tannins and lignins by advanced analytical techniques. He is also experienced in the chemical / biochemical / biotechnology-based modification of tannins and lignin oligomers, including their modification for targeted delivery purposes.
E-Mail: heiko.lange@unimib.it

Associate Professor (TUC), Systems engineering: physico-chemical, energy coversion processes, mechanical systems
Assistant professor in the School of Production Engineering and Management of the Technical University of Crete. Diploma of Chemical Engineering in 1991 and Ph.D. in 2000 from the National Technical University of Athens. His research interests focus on the Design of Processes and Systems, Energy Systems Management (energy conservation, regional energy planning with renewable energy sources, design of hybrid power systems, assessment of rational energy management policies and measures), Environmental Systems Management and Protection (natural resources management, air pollution control, tools for environmental performance assessment), Water Resources Management (eco-efficiency assessment of water value chains, drought management, water demand management and forecasting, natural and engineered water treatment system design, water production through desalination), Geographical Information Systems, E-learning Technologies. His expertise is on modelling and optimization of systems and processes, on the development and implementation of computational techniques and on the design and development of decision support systems (DSS). He has participated in many research projects at both European and National level. He is the author of 5 academic books while a remarkable part of his research activity has been published in scientific journals and conference proceedings.
E-Mail: garampatzis@tuc.gr

Associate Professor (AARHUS), Process and Materials Engineering
Associate Professor in Biological and Chemical Engineering (BCE) at Aarhus University (AU). Working on PSE (Process Systems Engineering) around renewable fuels and chemicals by utilizing thermochemical processes (hydrothermal liquefaction, carbonization, pyrolysis, etc,), chemical energy storage (power-to-X), waste valorization and management and biorefineries. Main focus on application of computational methods which includes the use of PSE tools to synthesize, integrate and analyze processes by taking into account the needs of people (social), planet (environment) and profits (economy), the tri-fold metrics of sustainability. These tools include process synthesis/modeling and integration, techno-economic (TEA) and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). Particular interest is given in integration of chemical and renewable energy technologies for exploiting synergies leading to optimization of processes in a circular economy concept. Experience in working and managing both national and international research projects.
E-Mail: kanastasakis@bce.au.dk

Assistant Professor (WISC), Circular economy systems engineering
Styliani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a MEng and a Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. She has authored or co-authored over 65 major research publications in the areas of circular economy, food-energy-water nexus, multi-level optimization, system modeling, process control, energy and systems engineering applications. She has also published one book on the area of multi-level mixed-integer optimization. She has recently been awarded the 2023 Interantional Society of Global Optimization Young Researcher Award.
E-Mail: avraamidou@wisc.edu

Director or Co-Director of Joint Research Center (Univ. Almería-CIEMAT), SOLAR TREATMENT OF WATER UNIT
Since 1990 he works at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA-CIEMAT) in all the EU R&D projects linked to the Solar Treatment of Water, being involved in 23 International, 30 National R&D Projects and different Contracts with Private Companies. Director or Co-Director of Joint Research Center (Univ. Almería-CIEMAT) of R&D in Solar Energy (CIESOL). http://www.ciesol.es (2006- up to now). Director of Plataforma Solar de Almeria (www.psa.es) (2012-2017). Head of Research Unit at CIEMAT. 2012- up to now He is author of 1 book and co-author of 18 books as well as >50 chapters in others. He has also co-authored more than 250 publications in indexed international journals, and more than 350 contributions to different International Congresses and 5 patents. He has participated in >90 Workshops and Conferences and participated as speaker in >60 specialized courses and masters. He has directed 15 PhD Thesis. >17000 cites, h-index: 75. Associate Editor: Environmental Chemistry Letters (Springer) and Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences (RSC Publishing) up to now. Journal of Advanced Oxidation Technologies (Sci. & Technol. Network, Inc.; 2008-2016). Member of editorial board: Catalysis Today (Elsevier), up to now. The Jury’s Grand Prix of “European Grand Prix for Innovation Awards”. 11/12/2004, Mónaco. http://www.european-grandprix.com/index_en.htm. Jaime I Price (Most important in science in Spain) in Environmental Protection, 2011. http://www.fvea.es/medioambiente.html.
E-Mail: sixto.malato@psa.es

Associate Professor (UoGalway), Regulatory Affairs & Lean Quality Management
Dr Olivia McDermott is an Associate Professor in Regulatory Affairs & Lean Quality Management at the University of Galway. She is the course co-director associated with the Medical Technology Regulatory Affairs (M.Sc. and Higher Cert) programs. She also lectures in Lean at the Centre for Adult Learning & Professional Development. She holds a DProf in Work Based Learning on Lean & Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management from the University of Middlesex. She has a MBA from UL and a M.Sc. in Quality Engineering from NUI Galway as well as a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology.
She completed her post-doctoral research in UL in the area of Lean in Healthcare and has lectured at UL in Lean and Supply Chain Management. She is also a FETAC Certified Trainer, an American Society of Quality (ASQ) Certified Black Belt and Master Black Belt, and is a Certified Management & Business Educator (CMBE) as well as being trained in online course design and moderating. She has over 15 years of experience as a Lecturer, particularly within the Adult learning space.
Olivia spent 15 years within industry, having held various senior roles in multinational organisations, including the medical device and electronics industries, with experience in all levels of industry operations, especially Operations Quality, Regulatory Quality, New Product Introduction, Customer Complaints, Supplier Quality, Lean Six Sigma and Training. She has also worked as a self-employed consultant in Quality (Lean and Six Sigma) since she left industry in 2012. Her research interests are Quality 4.0, Industry 4.0, Lean, Six Sigma, and Operational Excellence. She has published and co-authored over 110 journal articles since 2021 and is currently involved in several global research projects in relation to Industry 4.0 and Lean & Six Sigma. She is a member of the editorial advisory board of the ¿International Journal of Lean Six Sigma¿ and ¿Technological Sustainability¿, a member of the Editorial Review Board of SAGE ¿Sustainable Futures¿, Emeralds TQM journal and BMC Health Service Research. She has also received several awards for her published work from Processes (Best Paper 2022), Lean Business Ireland (Best Contribution to Knowledge Paper 2022 and 2023), Machines (shortlisted for Best Paper 2023) and Emerald Publishing (Best Outstanding Paper 2021).
E-Mail: Olivia.mcdermott@universityofgalway.ie

Principal Investigator Bioinspired Material Chemistry (TUBF), Bioinspired Material Chemistry
He is interested in the synthesis and chemistry of biomineral inspired nanocomposite materials based on biopolymers and inorganic components to serve as mechanically robust structural materials. His interests focus on how inorganic matter interacts with biopolymers in bulk systems and how this affects the mechanical properties at the nano-, micro-, and macro-scales. External stimuli such as humidity will change properties of biopolymers. Introducing additional responsive behavior by highly functional small molecules into biopolymer matrices is an additional target of his research. He was a former Liebig-Fellow (funded by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie) at the Institute of Interfacial Process Engineering and Plasma Technology (IGVP) of the University of Stuttgart c/o the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, where he had a DFG fellowship studying the chemistry, role of mineral and organic structure and organization on the mechanics of mollusk teeth by synchrotron X-ray techniques. He obtained his doctorate in chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) in combination with the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research where he was a scholar of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie working on porous crystalline polymers, Covalent Organic Frameworks. He expanded them to environmental applications such as water storage and photocatalytic hydrogen generation. His dissertation was honored with the department award of the LMU in 2016. He completed his M. Sc in chemistry at LMU and University of Oxford in 2011, and his B. Sc. in chemistry at the Technical University of Munich in 2009. He presented his work at over 30 conferences and published 14 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
E-Mail: Linus.Stegbauer@esm.tu-freiberg.de

Professor (aegean), Environmental Engineering and Science Sector
He holds a Bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Environmental Science from the University of the Aegean (1998) and a PhD in Hydrology from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London (2002). From 2002 to 2004, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London on a project titled “Advanced National (UK) Methods for Spatio-Temporal Modeling of Rainfall and Evaporation for Large-Scale Modeling.” Within this project, he focused on point rainfall models. From 2005 until September 2006, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Energy and Environmental Systems Management Unit of the School of Chemical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. Since September 2006, he has been teaching in the Department of Statistics, Actuarial and Financial Mathematics, covering courses such as Advanced Forecasting and Simulation Methods, Environmental Statistics, Operations Research, and Databases. His main research interests lie in water resource management, the development of methods and tools for the management and analysis of environmental systems, and the simulation and forecasting of environmental variables.
E-Mail: dlekkas@env.aegean.gr

Professor (IHU), Dean of the Department of Food Science and Technology, Environmental Protection and Water Technology
Professor of Water Technology and Environmental Protection, at the Department of Food Science and Technology of the International Hellenic University and Director of the Laboratory of Technologies for Environmental Protection and Utilization of Food Byproducts. He holds a bachelor and doctor degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Thessaloniki. He has expertise on the application of physical, chemical and biological methods for water and wastewater treatment towards the removal of solids and dissolved organic substances and nutrients and energy recovery from byproducts. He has participated in more than 40 national and international research and demonstration projects, funded by E.U. and from local sources (ministries, industries, companies etc.). He has 131 publications in journals; more than 120 presentations in international conferences; 6 chapters in books; 2 EU patents. Reviewer of research project proposals in EU and Greece. He is involved in two COST actions related to microbial fuel cells (PHOENIX) and recovery of products from wastewater (FULLRECO4US).
E-Mail: samaras@ihu.gr

Associate Professor (TUC), Environmental Applications of Biochemical Engineering
Dr. Michalis Fountoulakis is an Associate Professor of Environmental Applications in Biochemical Engineering at the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece. He graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Patras, Greece in 2001 and subsequently pursued doctoral studies in Biochemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, earning his Ph.D. from the same Department in 2005. His primary research interests focus on the development of biochemical processes for the treatment and utilization of waste and wastewater, including anaerobic digestion, non-conventional wastewater treatment systems, composting, and cultivation of microalgae and fungi. He has served as a Visiting Professor in 2022 at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Luxembourg). He has published 64 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, receiving over 2500 citations and achieving an h-index of 26 (according to Scopus). He has participated in the implementation of more than 30 funded national and European programs. Currently, he is participating in two EU-funded research projects under HORIZON 2020, including HYDROUSA, which was recently completed, and ZeroPM, which is ongoing.
E-Mail: fountoulakis@tuc.gr

Senior Lecturer (LTU), Biochemical Process Engineering
She studied Chemical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (Greece) with specialization in Industrial Biotechnology. She then obtained a PhD in Biochemical Process Engineering from Luleå University of Technology in 2018, and she was awarded as one of the promising junior researchers at LTU for the academic year 2020-2021. She has been granted funding and participated in >20 interdisciplinary research projects under different roles, supported by EU Horizon 2020, the Swedish Energy Agency, the Kempe Foundations, the Carl Trygger Foundation, CH2ESS- Center for Hydrogen Energy Systems Sweden, Bio4Energy etc. She has built strong connections for international student internships and education via the Erasmus+ programme. Her research focuses on the enzymatic conversion of renewable feedstocks to high added-value products, such as fuels and chemicals. The ultimate goal is to create novel, green and sustainable processes based on enzymes in order to facilitate the Green Transition towards a carbon neutral society.
E-Mail: io.antonopoulou@ltu.se

Associate Researcher, Natural Products Chemistry
His primary interests lie in the field of Natural Products Chemistry, especially in the isolation, quantification and structure elucidation of secondary metabolites (SM) from microorganisms of the global biodiversity (terrestrial and marine environments) as well as from vascular plants. He has considerable hands-on expertise in 1 & 2D NMR spectroscopy for the interpretation of complex spectra and good experience and ability on Mass spectra Interpretation (HRMS).
E-Mail: n.tsafantakis@gmail.com

Assistant Professor (UoP), Sustainable treatment of liquid and solid waste and residues
Ioanna Ntaikou has a Degree in Biology from University of Patras (2001) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering (2006) from the same institution. Her core research interests are on the sustainable treatment and valorization of wastewater, wastes and biomass through biological and thermochemical processes, with specific focus on the production of microbial bioplastics and biofuels. She is co-author of 56 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals, 5 book chapters, 1 monograph and >90 articles in proceedings of international and national conferences. She has participated as researcher and coordinator or project manager in >25 international and national R&D projects, she is a reviewer for >30 international scientific journals and member of scientific committees and associations.
E-Mail: intaikou@uptras.gr

Assistant Professor (NTUA), Organic Chemical Technology with emphasis on the Circular Economy
Anestis Vlysidis holds a Chemical Engineer Diploma from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), where he graduated in 2006. Since 2022, he has been an Assistant Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering at NTUA. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester, focusing on the development of sustainable bioprocesses for the production of biochemicals from biodiesel industry by-products. He has conducted postdoctoral research at the Agricultural University of Athens and NTUA, working on the treatment and utilization of organic waste through innovative bioprocesses and the design of biorefineries for the production of bioplastics, biochemicals, bioenergy, and soil amendments. Additionally, he has been extensively involved in sustainability assessment, such as Life Cycle and Cost Analysis of emerging technologies, at the EU’s Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, and in collaboration with private research companies in Greece and abroad. He has over 50 publications in peer-reviewed research journals. Before his current position, he was an Associate Professor at the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete.
E-Mail: anestisvlysidis@chemeng.ntua.gr

Assistant Professor (AUTH), Integrated design of sustainable process systems
Theodoros Damartzis
E-Mail: damartzis@cheng.auth.gr

Assistant Professor (UCL), Product & Processing Systems Engineerign of sustainable process systems
Dr. Vassilis Charitopoulos is a Lecturer (Assist. Professor) in the Department of Chemical Engineering, CPSE at UCL. He specialises in developing mathematical programming models and methods to incorporate uncertainty considerations for chemical process and energy systems engineering problems. He holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL.Before joining UCL, he was a Research Associate at the Energy Policy Research Group at Cambridge Judge Business School where he worked on optimisation of heat decarbonisation pathways. Dr. Charitopoulos has received global recognition for his excellent research activity including: Springer Thesis Award (2019), UCL David Newton Prize (2019). He was the recipient of an Early Career Fellowship (2019) from the Isaac Newton Trust, University of Cambridge. In 2022, he was Highly Commended as Best Young Researcher by the IChemE Global Awards.
His current research focuses on the development of novel techniques for model-based and data-driven optimisation frameworks for digital process manufacturing and sustainable energy systems engineering.
E-Mail: v.charitopoulos@ucl.ac.uk

Assistant Professor (TUC), Control Systems with Emphasis in Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Saving
Born in 1982 in Thessaloniki, where he received his Chemical Engineering Diploma and PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering/AUTH in 2005 and 2011, respectively. He also holds an Msc Diploma from the Department of Mathematics/AUTH (2013). In the past, he has worked as a Collaborating Researcher at the Centre for Research & Technology Hellas/CERTH (2006-2013, 2016-2019), Department of Chemical Engineering/AUTH (2014-2016) and Texas A&M University at Qatar, Chemical Engineering Department (Sep.-Nov. 2014). Moreover, he was an Adjunct Faculty (407/80) at the University of Western Macedonia (Feb. – Jun. 2019). In the course of his career (2005-), he has published several articles in prestigious journals and has participated in numerous International and National Scientific Conferences, covering the areas of Process Modeling and Control for Energy, Environmental and Industrial Systems. In addition, he is actively participating in European and National Research Projects and as an evaluator of research proposals.
E-Mail: dipsakis@tuc.gr

Associate Professor (TUC), Applied Fluid Mechanics and Drilling Technique
His research focuses on transport phenomena in porous media, primarily of geological origin, but also other composite or heterogeneous materials encountered in environmental and energy-related applications, such as membranes, fibrous structures and porous silica nanoparticles. In particular, he studies single and multiphase flows, heat and solute transport in such materials using an integrated combination of rigorous pore-scale flow and transport simulation tools (both self-made and commercial) and experimental studies within microengineered 2D and 3D porous structures and microfluidic devices.
E-Mail: agiotis@tuc.gr

Senior Researcher-Project Manager (NTUA) Associate Professor (TUC), Environmental Protection Technologies
Dr Konstantinos Moustakas is Chemist (2000), holding PhD degree on Chemical Engineering in the field of waste management. He works in the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens. He has participated in more than 65 projects in more than 20 countries (2000-2020). He has considerable international experience (senior researcher&project manager) working in EU funded projects in several positions: project manager, technical expert, researcher, short term expert, training expert & dissemination expert in a number of EU Member States, accession/candidate countries and non-Member States.
He has cooperated with the European Commission directly, as he acted as TAIEX expert (institutional building) in Slovakia, Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria & Serbia. He has long teaching and training activity in the field of environment in different countries and he is certified for teaching adults by the National Organisation for the Certification of Qualifications & Vocational Guidance (EOPPEP) since 2007. He has been Collaborating Teaching Staff for the Hellenic Open University since 2014 (Subject: Solid Waste Management).
He has a large number of publications in journals and conferences, he has served as Guest Editor in a large number of journals, while he has had key role in the organisation of several big international conference events, e.g. Head of the Organizing Committee, key Member of the Scientific Committee & contact person of the Series of Conferences on Sustainable Solid Waste Management.
E-Mail: konmoust@central.ntua.gr

Assistant Professor (UCY), Environmental Biotechnology and Biological Systems Engineering
Dr Tsipa is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Biotechnology at University of Cyprus. Before her current appointment, she was a research associate at the UK’s National Centre for Synthetic Biology and the London Biofoundry at Imperial College London. She holds a PhD in Bioprocess Systems Engineering and a MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London, UK. She obtained her diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Dr Tsipa is considered as an expert in Environmental Biotechnology and Biological Systems Engineering.
E-Mail: tsipa.argyro@ucy.ac.cy

Professor Emeritus (TUC), Biochemical Engineering & Environmental Biotechnology
Nicolas Kalogerakis is a professor of Biochemical Engineering in the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete where he has served as Vice-President of the University Council and Department Head (twice). Prior to that he was a Professor at SUNYBuffalo (USA) and at the University of Calgary (Canada) where he climbed quickly through all ranks. In 1997, he returned to Greece as the founding faculty member of the Environmental Engineering
Dept. He holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from NTUA (Athens, Greece), a Master degree from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and a PhD from the Univ. of Toronto (Canada). During 2018-19, he was a Visiting Professor in the Dept of Chemical Engineering at the American University of Sharjah (UAE). Currently he is also Collaborating faculty at the Institute of GeoEnergy – FORTH, Chania Greece.
His area of expertise includes biochemical engineering & environmental biotechnology focusing on bioremediation and phytoremediation technologies for the restoration of contaminated sites; protection and restoration of the marine environment (oil spills and marine litter); novel oxygenation systems (nanobubble technologies) and wastewater treatment; and mathematical modeling of environmental processes. He has been very active in attracting external research funding totaling in excess of 25 million USD. Currently, Prof. Kalogerakis’s group is participating in 3 EU funded research projects, coordinator of nanoBT, an ERA-MIN2 project and was the coordinator of KILL*SPILL, a large FP7-project, that was recently completed.
He has served as a member of the European Commission (EC) Environment Committee (2007-2011) and as Sherpa in the EC, High Level Group on Key Enabling Technologies (2013-2015).
E-Mail: nicolas.kalogerakis@enveng.tuc.gr

Distinguished Professor, Chair in Dep. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Professor in Dep. of Electrical and Computer Engineering (UCLA)
Panagiotis D. Christofides is the chair of the UCLA Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He received a diploma in chemical engineering in 1992 from the University of Patras, Greece; master’s degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics in 1995 and 1996, respectively, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1996, all from the University of Minnesota. In July 1996 he joined the faculty of UCLA, where he is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering.
His research interests include nonlinear and predictive control, and analysis and control of distributed parameter systems, multiscale systems and hybrid systems, with applications to chemical processes, advanced materials processing, particulate processes, energy and water systems. His work has resulted in more than 450 articles in leading scientific journals and conference proceedings, and seven books that have earned him a Google Scholar h-index of 60. He has supervised more than 50 graduate students and has graduated 30 Ph.D. students, many of whom hold leading positions in academia or industry. A description of his research interests and a list of his publications and students can be found here.
Christofides has received several awards , including the Teaching Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Chapter of UCLA in 1997, a research initiation grant from the American Chemical Society – Petroleum Research Fund in 1998, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 1998, the Ted Peterson Student Paper Award and the Outstanding Young Researcher Award from the Computing and Systems Technology Division of AIChE in 1999 and 2008, respectively, and a Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research in 2001. He has twice received the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award in 2000 and 2004, and the Donald P. Eckman Award in 2004, from the American Automatic Control Council. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Federation of Automatic Control and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on the editorial board of leading control and chemical engineering journals and conferences.
E-Mail: pdc@seas.ucla.edu

Senior Researcher and Teaching Associate (NTUA), Synthesis and Development of Industrial Processes
Dr. Konstantina Papadopoulou is a Senior Researcher and Teaching Associate in the DepART. of Synthesis and Development of Industrial Processes, School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA and Collaborating member in the Depart. of Economics of the University of Piraeus. Obtained her B.Eng. (1999) in the Depart. of Chem. Eng., University of Wales, Swansea, UK; M.Sc. (2000) in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, in the Depart. of Chem. Eng., University of Wales, Swansea, UK, and a PhD (2006) in NTUA, “Bioremediation of contaminated soils”. Teaching in NTUA: Undergraduate: Environmental Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Environmental Biotechnology, Transport Phenomena, Dispersion of Waste; Postgraduate: a). Bio-economy, circular economy and sustainable development in the University of Piraeus and b). Energy Production and Management. Her research extensive experience is in International, European and National research projects and expertise in anaerobic digestion, dark fermentation, bioplastics production, CO2 sequestration, biogas upgrade, wastewater treatment, food waste treatment and biofuels production from food, industrial and agricultural wastes, as well as expert on LCA, LCC, Comsol, AQUASIM etc. She is co-author and corresponding author in several publications in international peer reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. Participations in International Conferences and HORIZON 2020 projects. Guest editor in Sustainability, MDPI and Frontiers in Chemical Engineering.
E-Mail: kpapado@chemeng.ntua.gr

Senior Software and Machine Learning Engineer (IQVIA)
Pantelis Karatzas is a Researcher and a Machine Learning & Web Technology Expert at the National Technical University of Athens. He is also a co-founder of Euclia, which is a spin-off company of NTUA specializing on the democratization and sustainability of molecular and material modelling frameworks, aiming at speeding up drug and material discovery, putting safety first. Through his involvement in many European research projects he has accomplished many research and analytical oriented tasks and has developed software platforms that offer risk assessment services and solutions for the chemicals, cosmetics, therapeutic agents and nanomaterials industries. The services and models have been used by multiple organizations around the world and have been deployed and integrated in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). He has also offered consulting services to many agencies and departments in the Greek public sector including the Greek Parliament, where he developed document management services. Scientific papers based on his research work have been published in top scientific journals.
E-Mail: pantelispanka@gmail.com

Sustainability Expert at Energy Economy & Sustainability Analysis Department (Scania)
Dr. Krishna Upadhyayula is working as Sustainability Expert at Energy Economy & Sustainability Analysis Department, Scania Technical Center (Scania Group) Stockholm in Sweden. In his current role, Krishna is responsible for holistic sustainability analysis of heavy duty vehicles with emphasis on life cycle assessment of Scania’s flagship products such as buses and long haul trucks. Krishna is leading the work on product environmental footprint (PEF) declaration of electric vehicle propulsion and Industrial batteries as a part of legal requirements introduced by European Union (EU) battery regulations. He plays an instrumental role in representing Scania in several external forums such as Swedish Life Cycle Center and European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Krishna is also affiliated with Chemistry Department at Umea University, Sweden as Associate Professor. His work at Umea University is focused on developing a comprehensive life cycle assessment framework to quantify sustainable performance of cities. He is an experienced researcher in the area of sustainability. He published around 30 journal articles, and his research contributions are well recognized in the field. The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) recognized Krishna’s research work on LCA based assessment framework for commercialization of academic research ideas as one of the Swedish innovations with great potential for business value in 2020.
E-Mail: venkata.krishna.kumar.upadhyayula@scania.com

Professor (UoP), Process & Environmental Engineering
Professor Dimitris Vagenas earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Patras in 1995, following a Diploma in Chemical Engineering (1991), and since 2015 he is Professor at the University of Patras, Greece. He is research activities include potable water treatment: removal of hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, iron, manganese (www.water-biofilter.gr), autotrophic hydrogenotrophic denitrification; treatment of agro-industrial wastewater: olive mill, table olive, dairy; treatment of industrial wastewater: hexavalent chromium; application of microalgae for wastewater treatment and biodiesel production; modeling of biological processes.
He also served as a Professor at the University of Western Greece from 2011 to 2013 and held several positions at the University of Ioannina from 2000 to 2011, including Associate Professor and Assistant Professor. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at FORTH/ICEHT from 1996 to 2000, following his military service. He has received notable recognition, including the Senior Research Award from the Fulbright Foundation in 2001. [Your Name] has contributed extensively to his field, with 110 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and 8 book chapters. He has presented at over 80 international conferences, serving as both speaker and keynote speaker. His teaching portfolio includes courses in microbiology, process safety, solid waste management, wastewater management, and soil and groundwater remediation. Additionally, he has coordinated 20 National and European competitive research projects, reflecting his commitment to advancing environmental systems.
E-Mail: dvagenas@upatras.gr

Senior Researcher (Chalmers ), Systems Biology, Life Sciences
I lead a research group in computational metabolic engineering, where we use mathematical model-driven analysis of experimental (omics-)data to understand, predict and engineer various aspects of metabolism in biology. In our projects, we often combine dry-lab computational approaches with wet-lab microbial studies. With this approach we improve productivity of sustainable microbial cell factories, ranging from the production of lipids and oleochemicals in oleaginous yeasts; flavouring compounds such as flavonoids in yeast; intracellular and secreted proteins; and antibiotic by actinomycete bacteria. Due to the versatility of the computational approaches, we also use it to study health & disease in precision medicine, focusing on metabolic aspects of different pathologies, and how microbial interactions contribute to the development of disease. On the technical site, we make use of genome-scale models of metabolism that are complemented with enzyme catalytic activities. Machine- and deep-learning approaches are used to fill knowledge gaps and to extract valuable knowledge from biological data. We develop open-source software such as RAVEN Toolbox; GECKO Toolbox; DLKcat; yeast-GEM; human-GEM; to name a few.
E-Mail: eduardk@chalmers.se

Associate Professor (Nord), Biosciences and Aquaculture
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna Trubetskaya graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 2016, an M.Sc. in Bio-Engineering at the University of Kassel in 2011, and Diploma in Biotechnology & Process Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Flensburg in 2009. She studies MBA in climate entrepreneurship at the Warwick Business School. She is an author > 50 scientific articles with the h-index = 26 (google scholar). Anna worked in academia and private sector in the US, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Denmark, and currently in Norway.
E-Mail: anna.trubetskaya@nord.no

Assistant Professor (AUTH), Biochemical Engineering
My research interests lie mainly in the following areas: (i) integration of experimental validation methods with model-based techniques aiming at bio-process optimization, (ii) identification and elucidation of key cellular events that govern the macroscopic behavior of cells in culture (i.e., gene regulation, product formation and energy metabolism) (iii) use of mathematical methods (i.e., Global Sensitivity Analysis, Design of Experiments, Mixed Integer Dynamic Optimization, Statistical Analysis) to analyse and organise experimental datasets aiming at hypothesis generation and testing, identification of correlations and dependencies and the design of optimally informative experiments and (iv) study of novel cellular based processes.
Scientific Publications
E-Mail: alexkip@auth.gr
Website: https://lbe.cheng.auth.gr/

Professor (NTUA), Industrial Process Systems Engineering
Dr. Kokossis, FIChemE, FIEE, FRSA, and FIET, is Professor of Process Systems Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. He is a Chartered Engineer with IChemE (UK). He holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from NTUA and a PhD from Princeton University. Prior to NTUA, he worked for 17 years in UK. He is now the co-director of the National Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry, a National Representative of Directorate I (Climate Change & Environment), Affiliate of IEA Bioenergy and EERA Bioenergy, and the Greek Delegate of the Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) group of EFCE.
His expertise includes process systems design, modelling, process integration, and optimization. He published extensively and has consulted with the process industry (UOP, Bayer, Mitsubishi, Eastman, MW Kellogg, BP Oil, Unilever) and, more recently, with biorefineries and smaller companies on renewables. He has established collaboration with several industrial companies including several industries dedicated to the development of renewable energy and chemicals.
He has graduated 25 PhD and 46 MSc students. He holds 142 communications in international conferences, 129 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 70 invited lectures in conferences universities, and multinational companies. He serves as the National Representative of the IBISBA EU research infrastructure on Industrial Biotechnology. He is an elected member of the Executive Board of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) and leads the New EFCE Sustanability section.
E-Mail: akokossis@chemeng.ntua.gr
Website: https://ipsen.ntua.gr/

Associate Professor (LTU), Biochemical Process Engineering
His research is focusing on the production of next generation biofuels, chemicals and materials from sustainable resources by developing and improving integrated technologies for efficient conversion of forest residues and other sustainable resources (including aquatic biomass and industrial waste streams) into a range of highly demanded advanced bio-based products following a zero-waste approach. During the last years, he has been working on the fractionation and upcycling of post-consumer mixed plastic waste by adopting the successfully established organosolv fractionation process (for biomass treatment) to accommodate plastic waste as feedstock.
E-Mail: leonidas.matsakas@ltu.se

Assistant Professor (TUC), System Dynamics & Process Control
Dr. in Chemical Engineering with a focus on Computer Science methods and automated decision making, with experience in mathematical analysis & optimization, software development and energy, financial & pharmaceutical projects, coordinating and leading international teams of scientists & engineers, eager to apply professional experience – with strong motivation – in the consulting services sector.
E-Mail: ndiangelakis@tuc.gr

Dr. Kostas Pyrgakis

Dr. Konstantinos Pyrgakis is a Chemical Engineer (NTUA). He also holds an MSc in Computational Mechanics and a PhD in Chemical Engineering (NTUA), both related with the field of Process Systems Engineering and the design of industrial processes, notably in applications for biorefineries, circular economy and industrial networks. He was funded with a scholarship for his PhD studies and has 23 scientific publications. He has 14-year experience in engineering consultancy and academic research having participated in multiple EU-funded and National research projects so much as a researcher and a Project Manager. His engineering expertise includes process synthesis, modeling and optimization; water and energy integration; techno-economic analysis; LCA; Computational Fluid Dynamics; and fuels quality control.
E-Mail: k.pyrgakis@sustenshub.com

Mrs. Melina Psycha

Mrs. Melina Psycha is a Chemical Engineer (NTUA) and PhD candidate of the School of Chemical Engineering (NTUA) in the fields of Process Analysis, Design and Development. Her work and research experience includes industrial design with a specialization in 3rd generation biorefineries, integrated process design, and analysis of value and supply chains, economic and technical study of processes and integrated units, and the study of potential impacts on the environment and human health according to the principles of Life Cycle Analysis.
E-Mail: m.psycha@sustenshub.com

1^st SUSTENS meeting

4-5 June, Virtual

Event chairs

Plenary Speakers

Invited speakers

Scientific committee

Event manager