Despo Fatta-Kassinos

Despo Fatta-Kassinos is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She served as the founding director of Nireas International Water Research Center at the University of Cyprus during 2011 and 2022. She holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), an M.Sc. in Environmental Management and Education from the European Association of Environmental Management and Education, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from NTUA. She has participated in more than 100 research projects. Since 2003, she has attracted more than 14.6 million € as project coordinator/principal investigator. She was the Coordinator of the H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015/675530/ANSWER project (2015-2019) and the Chair of the COST Action NEREUS ES1403 (2014-2018). She is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the African Center of Excellence in Water and Environment Research, she served as the leader of the WG5 'Wastewater reuse' of NORMAN Association from its creation until 2019, while she is serving on the advisory boards of various research centers in Europe. She is a founding member of the International Ph.D. School on Advanced Oxidation Processes and member of its Scientific and Management Committee. She has also served as the Chair of the Scientific and Technological Advisory Board of the European JPI 'Water Challenges for a Changing World' (2015-2019). Her publication record includes 199 papers in refereed journals, 3 environmental books (co-editor), various book chapters, and 143 international conference papers. She has more than 38,800 citations and an h-index of 91 (Google Scholar). She is a Highly Cited Researcher since 2018 (ranked in the top 1% by citations). She has served as an elected member of the SETAC Europe Council between 2022 and 2025. She is Executive Editor of the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, Editor of Water Research, and co-Editor-in-Chief of the Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, Elsevier. Among other prizes, in 2012 she received the distinguished national research award by the Research and Innovation Foundation of Cyprus, while in 2022 the Noack Laboratorien Outstanding Science Career Award by The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). In 2024 she was elected in the Academy of Europe under the Class of Exact Sciences, in the Section of Engineering and as affiliated member in the Section of Earth and Cosmic Sciences (the first female scientist from Cyprus to be inducted in the Academy). She has published the children’ s book on water, entitled “The Secret Handbook of Blue Circle”, published by Papadopoulos Publishing House, in Greek (2018) and by IWA Publishing, in English (2019), (concept development and scientific editing).