Bridges in Sustainability

Vassilis Charitopoulos

University College London

Dr. Vassilis Charitopoulos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL. He holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL.

Prior to his post at UCL, he was a Research Associate at the Energy Policy Research Group at Cambridge Judge Business School where he worked on optimisation of heat decarbonisation pathways.

His current research focuses on the development of novel techniques for model-based and data-driven optimisation frameworks for digital process manufacturing and sustainable energy systems engineering.

Antonios Kladas

National Technical University of Athens

Antonios Kladas received the diploma in Electrical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1977-1982) as well as DEA de Genie Electrique (1982-1983) and Doctorat de l 'Universite Paris VI (1983 -1987), France, with a scholarship of the French government. From 1983-1987 he was Assistant Associe at Universite Paris VI and Associate Lecturer at Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan (ENSET) and Ecole Centrale de Paris (ECP). During 1990-1996 he was with Production and Transmission Systems Studies Department of Public Power Corporation. In 1996 he was elected Assistant Professor in Electric Power Division of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), where he is now Professor, Director of the Laboratory of Electrical Machines and Power Electronics. His research interests include transformer and electric machine design, development of electric/hybrid vehicles, as well as power system including renewable generation and industrial drive analysis under steady state and dynamic conditions. He has supervised 14 PhD theses, coauthored more than 100 papers in refereed international journals having received more than 3500 citations (as reported in Scopus) and he coordinated more than 15 research projects financed by National and European funds. In 2016-2019 he served as Vice-Director of the Board of the Energy Market Operator then Chairman and CEO of the Operator of RES and Guarantees of Origin SA and he is Vice-Chairman of the International Conference on Electrical Machines.

Antonios Kokossis

National Technical University of Athens

Antonis Kokossis is a professor at NTUA with degrees as a chemical engineer from NTUA and Princeton University. He returned to Greece after 20 years in the UK where he still holds a Visiting Professorship at Imperial College, London. His expertise includes sustainable process development, and environmental process and product design. His current research aims at the development of circular economy paradigms, the use of renewable feedstocks and processes, novel chemistries, applications of industrial symbiosis, and the use of advanced analytics to support sustainability concepts beyond conventional borders. He has consulted widely in industry and graduated over 30 PhD and 50 MSc students. He served as the National Representative of the International Energy Agency (IEA), and currently as the National Representative of the IBISBA EU research infrastructure on Industrial Biotechnology, and the Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) Group of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE). Prof Kokossis is Chair and founder of the Sustainability Section of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE), Fellow of IChemE, and an elected member of the Executive Board of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE).

Dimitra Kolokotsa

Hellenic Petroleum Group of Companies

Mrs. Dimitra Kolokotsa holds a Chemical Engineering Diploma (NTUA), a DEA Energetique – Physique degree (ENSPG France), a PhD in Food Science and Technology (AUA), and an MBA from ALBA Business School of Athens. She started her professional experience in 1989 in Commissariat à l\énergie atomique in Grenoble France (CEA Greth), and then worked from 1991 to 1997 as Scientific Collaborator in Centre for Renewable Energy Sources in Athens. She joint Hellenic Petroleum in 1998 where she assumed various positions of responsibility as Oil Refinery Process Engineer, Industrial Procurement Manager and as HR Director at International & Domestic Retail of the Group. In her current position as R&D, Competitiveness & New Technologies Manager in Hellenic Petroleum R.S.S.O.P.P. S.A., participates in Energy transformation activities in Refineries. In the context of energy and digital transformations she is open not only to refining technology R&D internally but also to National and International cooperation with Universities and all potential partners. Helleniq Energy supports their relatively recent R&D departments in extrovert activities.

Chrysi Laspidou

University of Thessaly

Chrysi Laspidou is a Professor at the Civil Engineering Department, and the Head of the Innovation-Technology Transfer Unit & Entrepreneurship Center at the University of Thessaly in Greece. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin and her PhD at Northwestern University. She is the Vice-President of Research and Technology at the Brussels-based organization, Water Europe, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Knowledge Action Network at Future Earth. She is the Chair of the Water-Energy-Food COST Action network, NEXUSNET and the coordinator of the 15-million European project ARSINOE and involved in a number of other funded projects.  She has published over 70 articles in scientific journals and conference proceedings and is actively involved either as a Coordinator, or as a Principal Investigator in research projects funded by the European Commission, or national sources.

George Lysseos

Association of Hellenic Plastics Industries and Entersoft

George Lysseos studied Mechanical Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued his postgraduate studies in Management at the Imperial College Science, Technology & Medicine of London. He is certified by Cambridge University in Business Sustainability Management, and he also has a few other Certifications (Champion for 6s, Advanced Finance MCE, Leadership Principles MCE). He has more than 30 years of experience in the General Management of large multinational and Greek companies, and he has extensive experience in strategic and financial planning, as well as in the design and implementation of business management transformation systems. He is the Executive Director of the Association of Plastic Industries of Greece, of which he served as Chairman from November 2015 to November 2018. He is a Non-Executive Member of The Board and Member of the Auditing Committee of Entersoft S.A.. He is the Founder and CEO of Lysseis M IKE a consulting company dealing mainly with ESG and Circular Economy projects. He is mentor at GreenTech Challenge and a member of the Association of Senior Business Executives (EASE) and of the Non-Executive Directors' Club in Greece (NED Club).

Spyros Pandis

University of Patras

Spyros Pandis is Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Patras and collaborating Faculty in the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences of the Foundation for Research and Development Hellas (FORTH). He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology and joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University (Departments of Chemical Engineering and also Engineering and Public Policy) in 1993 and of the University of Patras in 2004. He is one of the co-directors of the Center for the Study of Air Quality and Climate Change of FORTH.

His research includes theoretical and experimental studies of atmospheric chemistry as it relates to urban and regional pollution and topics related to global climate change. He has received awards from the American Association for Aerosol Research, the US National Science Foundation, the American Meteorological Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineering, the ERC Senior Investigator award, the Vilhelm Bjerkness Medal from the European Geophysical Union, and the Fuchs award from the International Aerosol Research Association.

Panagiotis Papadeas

TITAN Cement Group

Panagiotis Papadeas is Environment and Quality Director for Greece at TITAN Cement Co. S.A., where -in the course of the last 19 years- he has served various positions in the fields of production, environment, and quality both at the plants and at the headquarters of the company. He has a total of 24 years of industry experience.

He is a Chemical Engineer with a degree from the National Technical University of Athens and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Athens University of Economics and Business.

Since 2016, Panagiotis has represented the Greek cement industry in the European Cement Association (CEMBUREAU). He also sits on the Board of Directors for the United Nations Global Compact Network Greece and has previously been a board member of the Hellenic Solid Waste Management Association.

John Prousalidis

National Technical University of Athens

John Prousalidis was born in Athens (Greece) in 1968. He received his MSc (1991) and PhD (1997) degrees from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). In 2001 he joined the Academic Staff of the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering of NTUA in the scientific field of “Marine Electrical and Electronic Engineering”, (currently Full Professor). He is the author/co-author of 4 books, about 100 papers, reviewer in IEEE, IET, Elsevier and IMarEST journals. He is a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, IEEE, IMarEST, member of the board of the Hellenic Joint Branch of RINA/IMarEST,member of the Publication Supervisory Board of IMarEST Publications. Since April 2020 he is the vice-chairman of the IEEE Marine Power Systems Coordinating Committee (IEEE-MSCC), while since March 2021 he is member of the IEEE/EPPC Working Group on Energy and member of the IEC/ISO/IEEE JWG28 dealing with 80005 series of standards on ship-to-shore interconnections and since September 2022 head of the Industrial Connection Activity Sustainable Maritime of ΙΕΕΕ(ICA-22-013). His scientific interests include ship electric propulsion, All Electric Ship, green ships, alternative fuels, cold ironing, smart and sustainable ports, HVDC/HVAC submersible interconnections. He has participated in about 45 research projects (in 15 research projects he was coordinator). Currently he is the Director of the Marine Engineering Laboratory of NTUA.

Harilaos Psaraftis

Technical University of Denmark

Harilaos N. Psaraftis has a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) (1974), and two M.Sc. degrees (1977) and a Ph.D. (1979) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He has been Assistant and Associate Professor at MIT from 1979 to 1989, Professor at NTUA from 1989 to 2013 and Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) from 2013 to 2023. He is now a Professor Emeritus at DTU. His interests are in maritime logistics, intermodal logistics, port logistics and green logistics. He has been Principal or co-Principal Investigator of 55 research projects, of which 25 from the EU. He has coordinated 3 EU projects, all at NTUA. He has been a member and chairman of various groups at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and has also served as CEO of the Piraeus Port Authority (1996 -2002). He has published extensively and has received several academic and industry awards. His latest book is entitled “Sustainable Shipping: A Cross-Disciplinary View”, Springer (2019).

Harry Sachinis

EYDAP

Mr. Sachinis is the Chief Executive Officer of EYDAP, the largest water and wastewater company in Greece. He has negotiated a new favorable €6 billion 20-year concession agreement with the Greek State. He is also focusing on executing a €1.6 billion 10-year investment plan, transforming the company to achieve operational excellence and become a leader in ESG ratings.

He previously held the position of Business Development Officer at Aegean Airlines.

He has been involved in private equity as a Partner at Global Finance, as an Operating Partner at Advent International and independently. Earlier he was the Chairman and CEO of DEPA Group, where he significantly improved profitability, negotiated and completed major supply contracts worth $20 billion and contributed in the shaping of alternative gas supply routes to Europe. He has also served as President of the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Business Information Group, which he made into one of the top global business-to-business information companies, specializing in the energy, construction, aviation, aerospace and defense industries. Prior to this, he was President of Platts, which he built into the world’s largest energy and commodities price and information provider, and at the same time he actively promoted transparency and integrity in the global energy markets. He was also Group Vice President of Standard & Poor’s, where he grew key strategic businesses in the financial information sector. He has served as Vice Chairman of ATHEXClear and as a Member of the Boards of Directors of ENEXClear. He is a Member of the Boards of Directors of the Atlantic Council and οf the Investment Committee of CNL Capital.

He holds an engineering degree from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Constantine Samaras

Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Costa Samaras is the Director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, and a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy. Dr. Samaras analyzes how technologies and policies affect energy use and national security, resilience to climate change impacts, economic and equity outcomes, and life cycle environmental emissions and other externalities.

From 2021-2024, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as the Principal Assistant Director for Energy, OSTP Chief Advisor for Energy Policy, and then OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition, assessing technologies for meeting U.S. climate, resilience, equity, and security objectives, and aligning U.S. energy innovation systems to achieve national climate commitments.

He is a Founder of both the Center for Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation and the Power Sector Carbon Index, and was previously a Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation as well as a megaprojects engineer in New York City. He received a joint Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon, and an MPA in Public Policy from New York University.

Anna Stefanopoulou

University of Michigan

Dr. Anna G. Stefanopoulou, the William Clay Ford Professor of Technology at the University of Michigan, has served as the Director of the Automotive Research Center, a multi-university U.S. Army Center of Excellence, and the Michigan Energy Institute.

She has mentored and taught a generation of engineers in control of advanced powertrains through classroom, online, and asynchronous courses. She has been an advisor of new curricula, training needs, and research in modeling, estimation, and control for engines, fuel cells, and batteries, with findings documented in a book, 21 US patents, and 400 publications.

She has been recognized by many prestigious awards and is a Fellow of the ASME, IEEE, and SAE. She has served on two US National Academy committees (2015 and 2020) formed upon request by the US Congress to report on vehicle fuel economy standards and the transition to electrification.

Athanasios Stubos

NCSR Demokritos

Dr Athanasios Stubos is Research Director at the National Research Center Demokritos, Greece. He has studied Chemical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, holds MSc and doctoral degrees in Fluid Dynamics from the Von Karman Institute, Belgium, and has worked as Research Associate at the University of Southern California. His main research interests include Hydrogen Technologies, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Transport in Porous Media, Energy Processes and Environmental Impacts. He has acted as project coordinator for various European and National R&D projects, and performed industrial R&D in Belgium and Greece. For several years, he represents Greece in the State Representatives Group of the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking of the European Commission.

Costas Synolakis

USC Viterbi, Academy of Athens

Costas Synolakis has obtained all his degrees from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech): B.Sc. in Engineering and Applied Science in 1978, M.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1979, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 1986. In 2016 he was elected a regular member of the Academy of Athens and is currently Secretary of the Division of Natural Sciences. In February 2023, he was inducted in the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

In 1985 he was appointed Professor of Civil, Environmental and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California (U.S.C.) Viterbi School of Engineering, where, in 1996, he founded the USC Tsunami Center. Following an election by the National Research and Technology Council, he served as President of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research from 2011-2013. In 2019 he was elected Chairman of the newly established Special Scientific Committee on Climate Change in Greece, and was instrumental in developing the EU as well as the Greek Climate Laws. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Space Center. From 2020-2023, he served as President of Athens College.

Costas Synolakis is an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of tsunami research and other natural hazards, Costas Synolakis has edited five books, has mentored over 50 PhD and MSc students, ha authored over 150 peer reviewed papers and has conducted over 220 conference presentations. He has  helped produce several documentaries in the Discovery Channel, BBC, National Geographic, History Channel and ZDF.  Other than his field work, he is best known for his ground-breaking theories on wave physics and his insights on the complexity of major global tsunamis. His runup law which relates the maximum amplitude of solitary waves offshore,  the water depth, the beach slope and the inundation along the sloping beach  is an exact analytical result   extensively  to validate and benchmark numerical codes, some used for operational forecasts.  Among the numerous academic accolades and other distinctions, he has  the Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1989,  and   the 2016 European Geophysical Union Soloviev Medal, the 2019 International Coastal Engineering Award bestowed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).  In 2020 he received the Hamaguchi Award bestowed upon individuals or organizations that have made significant scientific or pragmatic contributions to the enhancement of coastal resilience against tsunami, storm surge and other coastal disasters, thus raising people’s awareness of disaster resilience.