People
Our team of undergraduate and postgraduate (MSc and PhD) students, postdoctoral researchers and research fellows, is involved in research projects that deal with assessing Mediterranean fisheries and stock status, monitoring marine populations, promoting ecocentric fisheries management, studying marine mammal populations and their interactions with fisheries, modelling marine ecosystems and developing the digital twin of the ocean.
Athanassios C. Tsikliras
Faculty
Athanassios Tsikliras teaches undergraduate zoology and fish biology courses and, since 2014, directs the postgraduate course on Fisheries Biology and Management. He has worked for Fisheries Research Institute of Kavala (1999-2002), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2003-2008), University of Thessaly (2009-2012) and since 2013 serves as a full-time faculty member at the School of Biology. His research focuses on fish biology and fisheries, stock assessment and management of Mediterranean fisheries, the effect of climate on marine populations, and ecosystem management.
Vice-chair of the Sea Around Us Advisory Board
Sophie Manousi
Project Manager
Sophie Manousi holds a BSc in Environmental Science and Technology from Middlesex University, London with additional training at the Technical Chamber of Greece on Environmental Impact Assessments. Has working experience on conducting Environmental Impact Assessments, on costumer and order management and on accounting in the private sector. Presently, she is a team member of the Laboratory of Ichthyology of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, working as project manager in EcoScope, an EU funded program.
Ioannis Keramidas
PhD Student
Ioannis Keramidas holds a BSc degree in Biology and an MSc in Fisheries Biology and Management, both from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has in the Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) in Kavala, as a scientific collaborator in the National Program for the Collection of Fisheries Data in Greece. He has published 8 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 9 other items. His main interests include ecosystem models, invasive species monitoring, and satellite assistance programs for remote sensing and information. He is an experienced PADI Divemaster seeking new adventures.
Danai Mantopoulou-Palouka
PhD Student
Mantopoulou Palouka Danai holds a BSc and an MSc in applied mathematics from NTUA. She worked at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research as a contract researcher and has participated in six EU and national projects and several stock assessment working groups. Her research interests focus on population dynamics, stock assessment and MSE. She has published 6 journal articles.
Melina Nalmpanti
PhD Student
Melina Nalmpanti is a PhD student studying fish communities using underwater video techniques. She is also working on a project on the biology of alien species (age determination) and has participated in a project on the interactions of marine megafauna with small scale fisheries. During her studies she had focused on benthic food webs using stable isotopes (MSc in Marine Biology, University of Bremen and Alfred Wegener Institute), macro fauna biodiversity associated with sponges (BSc in Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and zooplankton biodiversity (Erasmus+, University of Salzburg). Ultimately, she is interested in better understanding the interactions of community assemblages and anthropogenic stressors in order to protect and build more effective MPAs.
George Orfanidis (FRI)
PhD Student
Georgios Orfanidis holds a BSc degree in Biology and an MSc degree in Marine Ecology (University of Lund). During his studies he worked in DTU AQUA (Denmark), SLU (Sweden) and IMR (Norway) labs. Since 2018 he is working in Fisheries Research Institute in Kavala as scientific collaborator. His research interest focuses on fisheries research, stock assessment, stock management and spatiotemporal distributions of demersal fish stocks and their assemblages. He has published one journal article and 5 conference papers.
Evangelia Daskalaki
MSc Student
Daskalaki Eva holds a BSc degree in Biology and is currently doing an MSc in Ecology and Conservation Biology, focusing on ecosystem modelling. During her studies she became particularly interested in community assembly mechanisms, SDMs/ENMs and spatial analysis, MPA management as well as climate change and its effects on population dynamics. She has experience in the use of R, GIS and is currently involved with EwE Software. Also, she has field sampling experience and has participated in international/national conferences.
Konstantina Stergiou
MSc Student
Konstantina Stergiou holds a BSc degree in Biology (2017-2021) and is currently doing an MSc in Fisheries Biology & Management (2021-) in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her BSc thesis research pertained to biodiversity patterns with the use of classic statistical methods and Machine Learning. Her interests are based on marine biology, ecosystem modelling, climate change and its effect on population dynamics, machine learning and other computational methods.
Anna Kalogeroudi
Research staff
Anna Kalogeroudi holds a BSc degree in Biology and intends to continue her studies in Marine Biology, focusing on marine mammals. Her research activity during her bachelor studies focused on cetacean vocalization and she is currently working as research assistant at the Laboratory of Ichthyology of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Jennifer C.A. Pistevos
Research staff
Jennifer Pistevos holds a PhD in Marine Biology from The University of Adelaide where she specialised in the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on the sensory ecology of predatory fish. She additionally holds an MRes in Marine Biology from The University of Plymouth and an MSc in Aquatic Resource Management from King’s College London. Since completing her PhD she did a post-doctoral post in French Polynesia and in France. Presently she is working as a researcher of the Laboratory of Ichthyology of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, working on EcoScope, an EU funded program.
Christos Papadopoulos
Research staff
Papadopoulos Christos holds a BSc degree in Biology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and he contrives to continue his studies in Fish Biology and Marine Ecosystems. In the past, he has participated as a member of the research team of AUTH in the InCa project. Now he is working as a field researcher for the Laboratory of Ichthyology of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Kostantina Michailidou
Research staff
Kostantina Michailidou holds a BSc degree in Biology and is currently studying for an MSc in Fisheries Biology and Management. During her bachelor studies her research activity focused on microplastics’ impact on cellular stress parameters on fish tissues and she also completed an internship referring to fish reproduction and broodstock management in fish farming facilities (H.C.M.R.). Presently, her interests are based on fish stock assessment and fisheries biology.
Vasileios Vreskos
Research staff
Vassilis created the websites fishlab.bio.auth.gr and marefishlab.bio.auth.gr. He manages both websites and is responsible for their smooth operation. Vassilis has worked on several projects related to digital marketing and data analysis and assists in everyday web challenges.
Donna Dimarchopoulou
External collaborator
Donna Dimarchopoulou is currently an Ocean Frontier Institute postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution working on assessing ocean warming effects on shifting fisheries catches in the NW Atlantic Ocean. She is also a member of the Executive Board of the H2020 project EcoScope (2021-2025). Broadly, she is interested in the effects of fishing and environmental changes on marine ecosystems. Her research focuses on marine fisheries, ecosystem modeling, stock assessments, marine protected areas, and the benefits of fishing restrictions on marine populations.
BSc Students
- Maria Kontogeorgiou
- Alexis Pilatis
- Anna Kalogeroudi
- Eleanna Yperifanou
- Epaminondas Grigoriadis
- Aikaterini Arvanitidou
Former members
Research fellows
- Konstantinos Touloumis (2023)
- Angeliki Ntikou (2023)
- Donna Dimarchopoulou (2016-2020, now in Dalhousie University)
- Kalliopi Gkikopoulou (2020-2021, now in St Andrews University)
- Androniki Pardalou (2015-2021)
Research staff
- Adam Pantelis Galatoulas (2022 – 2023)
- Colleen Malfatti (2023)
- Evangelos Koufalis (2020 – 2022)
- Anna Chrysafi (2022)
- Julio Ubeda Quesada (2022)
- Natalia Padillo-Anthemides (2021)
- Vassiliki Gousopoulou (2020 – 2021)
- Renata Karathanou (2020 – 2021)
- Maria Makri (2018 – 2019, now in DTU)
PhD Students
- Angeliki Adamidou (2015-2023, now in FRI)
MSc Students
- Panagiota Kontogeorgiou (2021 – 2023)
- Konstantinos Michaelidis (2018 – 2022)
- Anna-Maria Gkini (2021-2022)
- Katianna Malamidou (2018-2020, now in FRI)
- Dimitris Lachouvaris (2017-2018, now in FRI)
- Paraskevi Papadopoulou (2016-2018, now in FRI)
- Panagiota Varsamoudi (2015-2016)
- Vassileios-Zikos Tsiros (2013-2015)
- Eleni Tsalkou (2013-2015)
- Christina Zikidou (2013-2014, now in HCMR)
BSc Students
- Anthoula Vikelidou (2020-2022)
- Aikaterini Loufaki (2021-2023)
- Eleftherios Tektonidis (2018-2022)
- Sotiris Sidiropoulos (2020-2021)
- Maristella Mpotsi (2019-2020)
- Vasileia Aletra (2018-2019)
- George Vagenas (2017-2019)
- Uxue Sarriegi (2017-2018)
- George Christidis (2015-2017)