Biography

Dr. Despo Fatta-Kassinos is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the former Director of Nireas-International Water Research Center (Nireas-IWRC), UCY (2011 – 2022). She received her PhD from the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 1999. Up to now she has participated in more than 80 research projects. She received the 2012 “Nikos Symeonides” national research award by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation for her work on wastewater treatment and xenobiotics. In 2017, she received an honorary award for her long-standing contribution and activity in the research area of Environmental Protection by the Hellenic Open University. Since 2018, she is in the list of Highly Cited Researchers in recognition of the production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year (by Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics). She was the leader of the WG5 'Wastewater reuse' of NORMAN Association (2013-2019) and a founding member of the International Ph.D. School on Advanced Oxidation Processes and member of its Scientific and Management Committee. She was the Chair of the Scientific and Technological Advisory Board of the European JPI 'Water Challenges for a Changing World' for the years 2015-2019, the Chair of the COST Action NEREUS ES1403 (2014-2018) and the Coordinator of the H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015/675530/ANSWER project (2015-2019). She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Strategic Partnership "Cross-Research in Environmental Technologies of the University of Santiago de Compostela (CRETUS)" of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the Chair of the Advisory Board of the African Center of Excellence in Water and Environment Research. She is a member of the core group of the Global Panel on Chemical Pollution of the Environment (GPCPE), which is an initiative of the French National Water Academy (since January 2019). She serves on numerous scientific evaluation panels (e.g. National Research Funding Agencies from Europe, Middle East, Asia, Canada, USA, the European Science Foundation and the European Commission).
She serves as Editor of the Journal Environmental Chemical Engineering, and as Associate Editor of Water Research, Elsevier. Her publication record includes 181 papers in referred journals, 3 environmental books (co-editor), various book chapters, and more than 204 presentations at international conferences. She developed the concept and text of a children’s book on water, titled "The Secret Handbook of the Blue Circle", published by Papadopoulos Publishing House in Greek (2018) and by IWA Publishing in English (2019).