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Dr. Evdokia Krystallidou

Dr. Evdokia Krystallidou is the Director of the Strategic Project Management Office of the American Farm School. She received her PhD in Animal Nutrition and an MSc in Dairy Animal Science from the University of Reading after being awarded a scholarship from IKY (Greek state scholarship institute). She holds Diplomas in Animal Production from the Technological Educational Institution (TEI) of Thessaloniki and ASPAITE (certified educator). She worked as a part time lecturer at the Technological Educational Institution (TEI) of Thessaloniki and Larisa and as an advisor at Hellenic Feed Industries (ΕΛΒΙΖ). She acted as program Leader for the Pearson BTEC Higher Nationals in Animal Management program. She teaches at Perrotis College and the Adult Education Program of the American Farm School. As the Director of the SPMO at AFS she is responsible for many research projects. In this capacity she is responsible for the Agrifood Entrepreneurship Centers run by AFS in the cities of Thessaloniki and Kalamata, and oversees training and consultancy projects in over thirty locations throughout Greece. Building and managing multi-actor alliances between research institutes, civil society institutions and the real economy is one of her core activities. Her research interests include animal nutrition and its impact on animal products and human health, monitoring feed formulations to meet quality performance and animal health standards, and evaluating chemical and nutritional value of feeds

Dr. Panayiotis Dimopoulos

I hold a degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD on “Flora and Vegetation Ecology of mountain ecosystems”. Faculty member since 2000 and Professor in Botany and Ecology from 2009 to 2016 in the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management and from 2016 onwards in the Department of Biology of the University of Patras. My research interests and key-expertise (1990-2021) lie in: flora and vegetation analysis, conservation and ecology of species and habitats focusing to: inventory, monitoring, assessment and mapping of habitats and ecosystems in protected areas (Greece & Cyprus); biodiversity evaluation and analysis (species and community level); mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services; vegetation and flora databases; Article 17 (Dir. 92/43/EEC) reporting on the conservation status assessment of habitat types (Greece & Cyprus); conservation policy and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for Implementation. I have published 136 articles in international scientific journals (1990-2021), I have participated with 110 and 90 oral presentations in International and National Conferences respectively. I have participated as lead researcher and to date have coordinated 40 national and 20 European research projects.

Dr. Dimitrios Vlachos

Professor Vlachos is the Director of the Laboratory of Statistics and Quantitative Analysis Methods, Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LASCM) of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece.

He conducts research and consulting in the fields of supply chain management, logistics, applied operational research, combined transport systems management, business restructuring and strategy development. He has participated in more than 60 research projects (in 15 of them as a principal investigator) in the field of Supply Chain Management, and he has co-authored the respective technical reports.

He has published more than 200 papers in scientific journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. He has participated as a consultant or expert in numerous projects funded by public and private organizations. He is President of the Greek Association of Supply Chain Management (EELBE).

Mr. Xenophon Kappas

Since 2011 he is the General Director of “Captain Vassilis & Carmen Constantakopoulos” Foundation, promoting and supporting sustainable development in Greece. He has worked with various organisations from different positions gaining an extensive experience on issues of sustainable development and social cohesion. His previous professional experience was in similar positions in organisations and companies related to sustainable management and development. Since his youth he is active volunteer mainly the last years as Board member at national and international organisations with humanitarian and environmental focus.  His studies are on Business Administration and he holds MAs  on European Studies and Latin American Studies, specializing on politics and development.

Dr. Philip Papadopoulos

Dr. Philip Papadopoulos holds a PhD from London School of Economics and is currently the Director of the InoFA cluster Support Office. In addition, he is an external consultant to the University of Patras for the creation of an educational ecosystem in the agricultural sector in the region of Western Greece and a member of the Regional Council of Research and Innovation of Central Macedonia .

In the past, he has served as director of the Strategic Project Management Office of the American Farm School (AFS), academic director of IMESE and CMI, as well a visiting lecturer in universities in the UK and Serbia.

Building and managing multi-actor alliances between research institutes, civil society institutions and the real economy is one of his core activities.

His fields of interest include entrepreneurship and innovation, ecosystem creation, as well as new product and business development in the agrofood sector.

Dr. George Zalidis

George Zalidis graduated from the Agronomy Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with doctoral studies at the Department of Soil Science and postdoctoral studies in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering Department at the State University of Michigan US.

Today, he is the  Director of the Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Spectroscopy and Geographical Information Systems, and member of the Laboratory of Applied Soil Sciences at the Department of Agriculture of the School of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is also the  Scientific Coordinator of Interbalkan Environment Center (i-BEC) since 2007.

His research focuses on issues of quality and restoration of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the use of Earth observation data (space and terrestrial) in the  Societal Benefit Areas, the OECD indicators of sustainable development and the use of spectral data in the monitoring of agricultural ecosystems and natural terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

 

CURRENT POSITION

  • Professor of Pollution and Soil Degradation, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Land Reclamation Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, Laboratory of Applied Soil Science.
  • Director of the Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Spectroscopy and G.I.S., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture.
  • Member of the Laboratory of Applied Soil Science. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture.
  • Scientific Director, Interbalkan Environment Center (I-BEC)
  • Member, Hellenic Quality Assurance & Accreditation Agency (HQA) Council
  • Representative of the Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Rural Development and Food at the international Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) of GEO.

Mr. Geert Wilms

Geert Wilms studied Horticulture at Wageningen University and Business Administration at Open University. For more than 20 years Geert has been director of Agricultural Innovation Brabant (LIB), and he is consultant at Royal Haskoning DHV.

LIB is a partnership of Province North-Brabant and farmers organization ZLTO. Each year more than 30 innovative projects are initiated and supported, with the participation of hundreds of (agricultural) businesses. Several workshops are organized and guided. Geert is directly accountable to the President of ZLTO and regional Minister of agriculture in North-Brabant. One project he started and is very proud of: “Smart irrigation in agriculture; 3.000 farmers participating with 60.000 hectares, and 25% gain of efficiency in water use”.

 Geert Wilms also is a speaker, discussion leader and initiator of cooperation in different regions in Europe. He is/was involved in more than 15 European funded projects, for example Water management, Water conservation, Agrispin, Eurodairy, EU-PIG and STRING.

Dr. Demetrios Kouretas

Dr. Kouretas has a BSc in Pharmacy from University of Patras (Greece) 1985, PhD in Biochemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 1989 (Greece) and Post-doc at Harvard Medical School from 1990-1992. Dr. Kouretas has been staff member in the University of Thessaly since 1996 and from 2007 is Professor of ‘Animal Physiology – Toxicology’ at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the University of Thessaly (Greece).  He has co-authored 220 articles in peer-reviewed journals and about 100 invited lectures in national and international conferences. According to Google scholar Dr. Kouretas’ publications have been cited 10000 times and their ‘h-index’ is 55. In 2017 has been elected member of the European Commission Committee (Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging risks, SCHEER) and the same year (2017) President of the Hellenic Society of Toxicology and Director of the National Master Program in Toxicology.

He has founded the spin-off company FoodOxys aimed at developing bio functional nutrition. He is Associate Editor in the ‘Food & Chemical Toxicology’ (from 2015), ‘Toxicology Reports’ (from 2017) journals of Elsevier and Academic Editor in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (from 2017) and Antioxidants (from 2018).