Dr. Panagiotis N. Skandamis is Assoc. Professor of Food Microbiology and Food Quality Control and Food Hygiene in the Agricultural University of Athens and member of the BIOHAZ panel of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). He received his Bachelor Degree on Food Science & Technology and a PhD on Food Microbiology by Agricultural University of Athens (AUA). He has worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Animal Science of Colorado State University in USA. In 2004, he joined the Department of Food Science & Technology of AUA, teaching Food Microbiology and Food Quality Control and Hygiene. Dr. Skandamis has (co-) authored 135 original research papers in journals of SCI, 30 book chapters, edited 1 book, more than 200 oral or poster presentations in conferences and has a total number of 6280 citations (h-index 36).
His research is funded by 5th, 6th and 7th EU Framework Program, HORIZON 2020, multiple competitive Grants from Greek Research and Technology Funding Agency, Hellenic institute of Research and Innovation, as well as direct contracts with the Greek Food Industry in the following areas: (i) active antimicrobial and intelligent packaging of foods; (ii) assessment of microbial food spoilage; (iii) survival/growth of pathogens, with emphasis on the adaptive response to food-related stresses, (iv) biofilm formation and removal by chemical and natural disinfectants, (iii) predictive microbiology of foods and quantitative microbial risk assessment, (v) application of mild preservation technologies and antimicrobial interventions; (vi) detection, isolation and subtyping of foodborne pathogens from foods and food processing environments and (vii) ecology of mycotoxin-producing fungi. He has been Associate Editor in Food Research International (2012-2017). Currently he is serving as scientific co-editor in Journal of Food Protection and member of the Editorial Board in Applied and Environmental Microbiology and International Journal of Food Microbiology.
Dr. Skandamis is member of the scientific committee of International Conference in Predictive Microbiology in Foods (ICPMF) since 2008, member of the organizing committee of European symposium of International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) since 2015, and current co-President of the FoodMicro 2020. He is also Chair of the Professional Development Group of “Microbial Modelling and Risk Assessment” of IAFP.
Dr. Skandamis is the Head of “Department of Dietetics and Quality of Life” and co-ordinator of the WG “Food Safety” of the National Technological Platform “Food For Life”. He has been involved in the task force established by SEVT and the National Food Safety Authority for the development of guidance documents for Good Hygiene Practices against SARS-CoV-2 in the food processing and catering services, producing one document for risk profile and a Guide of Good Hygiene Practices against Covid-19 for personnel of the Food Industry.
Predictive Modeling software development: Dr. Skandamis has also developed a Predictive Modelling Software tool, entitled GroPIN, which constitutes a database of 714 kinetic and probabilistic models for pathogens and spoilage organisms in response to a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic foods parameters (e.g., T, pH, aw, preservatives, atmosphere, etc.). GroPIN is capable of simulating microbial growth and inactivation under static and dynamic processing and distribution conditions along the food chain, both deterministically and stochastically, via Monte Carlo simulation.
