Biography

Maria Kanakidou, Prof. of Environmental Chemistry at the Uni. of Crete, with BSc in Chemistry at the Uni. of Athens, MSc, PhD & Habilitation at the Uni. of Paris, post-doctoral research on global modelling at the MPI-Chemistry with Prof. Paul J. Crutzen (Nobel 1995). She joined the CNRS in Paris as permanent researcher in 1991 and the University of Crete 7 years later. In France (1991) and in Greece (1998) she initiated the global tropospheric chemistry modeling activities. She served in several international scientific committees, advisory and editorial boards, editor of scientific journals, as panel member at ERC starting grants, reviewer of competitive collaborative & excellence research projects (e.g. Europe, USA) and for international scientific journals including Nature, Science and assessments like IPCC and WMO.
M. Kanakidou is member of: Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) on 'The Atmospheric Input of Chemicals to the Ocean', the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (iCACGP, www.icacgp.org since 1998, President (2006-2010), honorary member in 2014), the Steering Committee of Surface Ocean Low Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) and of Measurement-Model Fusion for Global Total Atmospheric Deposition (MMF-GTAD) of GAW/WMO.
She won several competitive research grants to support her research (EU and National grants) and organized, co-organized several international conferences and workshops. She is the recipient of the 2016 Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal of EGU for atmospheric Sciences and the 1998 H. Julian Allen Award, recognized and received congratulations by UNEP for her contributions to WMO & IPCC reports. She has contributions to WMO, IPCC, the IGAC first phase synthesis book, and the IGAC and WMO report on the Impacts of Megacities on Air Pollution and Climate; numerous invited/ keynote talks at international scientific conferences and workshops.
During her scientific career, she has done a number of important changes in the scientific approaches and topics of her research, remaining centered on atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemical cycles and climate and past and future changes due to human activities. She performed a number of innovative studies that have fostered further international research.
She is best known for her global modeling studies on organic aerosols in the atmosphere, her research on the secondary organic aerosol formation, the factors that control their past and future variability, and the climatic impact of aerosols; lead author of a highly cited review paper on organic aerosols and global climate modeling; performed the first 3-d global modeling studies of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and of the factors that control their variability, the first demonstration of the importance of anthropogenic emissions in biogenic SOA formation, the first 3-d global modeling of organic ligands in atmospheric water.
MK has an experimental background with PhD research on the experimental study of the surface sources of light volatile organics in the troposphere. She determined the first estimates of the marine sources of these compounds in the scientific literature. When in Mainz she moved into global chemistry-transport modelling and performed the first reported global 2-d modelling study of light volatile organics. These studies included investigation of acetone and organic nitrates demonstrating their great importance for atmospheric chemistry. She began innovative 3-d studies including: the first global 3-d study of the fate of selected, substitutes of halocarbons, chlorofluorohydrocarbons (HCFCs and HFCs), studies of the impact of oxygenated organics on atmospheric oxidants, the synergistic use of modeling with aircraft and satellite observations and organic aerosol modelling. Since being in Crete she also focused on improving our understanding of the photochemistry in the east Mediterranean, one of the most active areas of photochemical ozone production in a global perspective with high aerosol load and affected by surrounding megacities and pollution centers. Based on modeling of the first long term nitrate radical observations in the marine boundary layer, she has shown the importance of nighttime chemistry for nutrient formation and deposition in the area. Her interest in biogeochemical cycles has recently been extended to address the phosphorus and iron atmospheric cycles. She has coordinated major and timely international intercomparison exercises for global 3-d chemistry transport tropospheric models: on ozone and carbon monoxide global tropospheric simulations in 1998 that inspired recent exercises and were reported in IPCC 2001; and the first organic aerosols (OA) global model intercomparison exercise in 2012 that fostered ongoing research on OA. She is currently leading the global model intercomparison exercise on cloud condensation nuclei and contributes to the iron atmospheric deposition global models synthesis.