Our People

Prof. J. Sciare is the director of the Energy Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of the Cyprus Institute (CyI). His main expertise covers the experimental characterization of atmospheric aerosols; addressing issues related their impacts on air quality, health and climate. He has received a Ph-D in atmospheric chemistry and physics from Paris VII University in 2000 with a dissertation on the “Biogeochemical cycle of dimethylsulfide in the Austral Ocean”.

Following a post-doctoral position at the Max Planck of Chemistry in Mainz (Germany) in 2000-2001 on the measurement of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) in various environments, J. Sciare has obtained a full permanent position in CNRS end of 2001 at LSCE and became CNRS Research Director in 2013, leading an atmospheric chemistry group of 20 persons from mid-2012 to mid-2014. Since mid-2014, J. Sciare is a full-time professor at the Cyprus Institute.

J. Sciare is currently leading the development of several major CyI research infrastructure such as : 1) the Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory (CAO) for long term observations of key atmospheric pollutants in Cyprus at, 2) the Unmanned System Research Laboratory (USRL) for the development of an unparalleled fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles dedicated to atmospheric research studies, and 3) the Facility for Chemical Analyses (FCA) for the speciation of trace species in ambient gases and aerosols.

J. Sciare is (co-)author of more than 110 international refereed publications (H-index 34) and more than 150 presentations at international conferences devoted to atmospheric chemistry and physics.

Dr Bourtsoukidis is a faculty member at The Cyprus Institute since January 2021. Previously, he was a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz (DE). He holds a PhD in Geosciences from Goethe University of Frankfurt (DE), a MSc in Environmental Physics and a BSc in Physics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR). His research focus on the role of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) in Earth System Sciences. He has lead research articles on Biogenic Volatile Organic Compound (BVOC) emissions from terrestrial vegetation and soils, on instrument development for chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) quantification in the free troposphere and on non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC) sources and sinks, applying interdisciplinary approaches in order to evaluate the atmospheric impacts of anthropogenic and biogenic emissions in the era of Anthropocene.

He has participated in numerous international projects and has authored/co-authored more than 30 publications, several of which in high-impact journals such as Science, Nature Communications and Global Change Biology.

Dr Maximilien Desservettaz is a postdoctoral research fellow in atmospheric science at the Cyprus Institute since January 2022, after having worked as a technical research expert since joining the institute in October 2019. He received his PhD in atmospheric chemistry from the University of Wollongong, Australia, his BSc and MChem in chemistry from the University of Leeds, UK, and his DUT in chemistry from the University of Rouen, France. His PhD thesis focused on improving emission estimates of Australian forest and savanna fires.

Prior to joining the institute, Max finished a short-term postdoc at the University of Wollongong, studying the relative impacts from hazard reduction burns and indoor wood heating on Sydney’s air quality. At the same time, he also worked as a research assistant at Australia’s Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation for two years. His work has spanned from Southern Ocean and Antarctic atmospheric composition, to mitigation strategies to reduce agriculture emissions, to impact from the use of hydraulic fracturing coal seam gas extraction on air quality and to collaboration with the Australian defence on better characterizing optical properties over the ocean for the development of new periscope technologies.

His current research focuses on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions and chemistry in the urban environment using state-of-the-art PTR-ToF-MS technology. He is also involved in a number of research projects in partnership with the Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory.

Tuija Jokinen joined the CyI faculty in August 2021 from the University of Helsinki, Finland, where she also completed her Ph.D. in physics and M.Sc. in chemistry. After her dissertation, she joined University of California at Irvine, USA, for a postdoc year and she has also been a visiting researcher at TROPOS, Leipzig, Germany. Before joining CyI she was the Head of Unit for two ACTRIS calibration centers and a group leader for the Polar and Arctic atmospheric research group (PANDA).

She has a long history in working with chemical ionization - atmospheric pressure interface - time of flight mass spectrometers (CI-APi-TOF) and she specializes in field observations of aerosol precursor gases and sub 10 nm particle measurements. She aims at solving how aerosol particles are formed from condensing vapors in the atmopshere and how aerosols effect the climate and ecosystems around EMME-area.

Maria is a post-doctoral research fellow in Atmospheric Aerosol Sciences of EMME-CARE. Her main expertise covers the experimental characterization of atmospheric aerosols. She has a strong background in Physics (BSc, University of Cyprus, Cyprus, 2015) and later specialized in Applied Meteorology and Climate with Management (MSc, University of Reading, UK, 2016).

The focus of her PhD work (Centre for Atmospheric and Climate Physics at the University of Hertfordshire, UK) was on atmospheric in-situ and remote sensing measurements of aerosols, with a particular focus on mineral dust particles. During her PhD project, she assembled, calibrated and operated a novel open-path OPC called the Universal Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System (UCASS). She has deployed the instrument for measurements of vertical profiles of aerosol size distributions during dust outbreaks over Cyprus, Greece, and Spain. The purpose was to assess the quality of the UCASS measurements with independent data from state-of-the-art remote-sensing retrievals such as GARRLiC, LiRIC, the AERONET and SKYNET inversions, and POLIPHON. So far, these activities have led to a couple of scientific publications.

Franco Marenco is an expert in aerosols and remote sensing, with 28 years experience. He started in the field with an undergraduate project in the laboratory led by Prof. Giorgio Fiocco at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy) on "Lidar observations of the stratosphere and the mesosphere from Thule, Greenland". Since then, he has taken an experimental approach to his studies on the the structure and composition of the atmosphere, and has promoted where possible the synergetic use of remote sensing, in situ measurements, and model predictions. In 2006, Prof. Marenco received a PhD in Physics from the University of Genova, Italy, with a thesis on "Research on atmospheric aerosols in a remote and an urban area of Northwestern Italy"

Franco is planning to contribute to research in the field of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents. He has extensive experience with lidar remote sensing, together with additional skills in the field of in situ observations and satellite remote sensing. He has contributed to research projects at a number of universities and institutes, in Italy, Greece, and the Netherlands, and since 2009 he is employed at the Met Office in the United Kingdom, where he continues to be affiliated part-time. The latter experience has permitted him to link his research interests to meteorology and hazard management.

From 2015 to 2021, Franco has been the manager of Satellite Imagery at the Met Office, which has permitted not only to broaden his scientific horizons, but also to further develop his leadership skills. In May 2021, he has joined CARE-C part-time, with a view of developing a ground-based remote sensing facility and growing the additional scientific capabilities that permit creating a full understanding of observed atmospheric scenes.

Franco Marenco has (co-)authored of more than 60 international refereed publications (H-index 20) and has extensively presented his research at international conferences devoted to remote sensing atmospheric sciences.

Dr Michael Pikridas is a postdoctoral fellow at the Cyprus Instritute since April 2013. His main expertise covers the experimental characterization of atmospheric aerosols with respect to new particle formation, aerosol optical properties, and source apportionment. He has received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Patras, Greece in 2012 and a bachelor degree in Chemistry from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2004.

He is currently managing the first long term observations station of key atmospheric pollutants in Cyprus, while participating in vertical profiling of ambient aerosol properties using unmanned aerial vehicles dedicated to atmospheric research studies.

Before joining the Cyprus Institute, he worked as research assistant in Brookhaven National Laboratory, U.S.A. where he characterized a novel aerosol size distribution instrument and as a laboratory manager at ICEHT-FORTH.

Mihalis received his B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Crete, Greece, in 1999. In 2002 and 2005, he received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental and analytical chemistry from the same university, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute (Mainz) in Germany. His Ph.D thesis was entitled “Nitrate radicals (NO3.): Their role in controlling the Nitrogen cycle and the Oxidizing Capacity of the atmosphere”.

He has been employed as a post-doc researcher by the ECPL laboratory in Crete (2005-2006), the IUP institute in Bremen (2006-2009, A.v.Humboldt and Marie Curie consecutive fellowships) and the Academy of Athens (2010-2012). In 2012, he joined the Environmental Energy, Environment and Water Research Center of the Cyprus Institute as a Research Scientist.

Since July 2015, Mihalis is a tenured professor at the University of Bremen in Germany and an adjunct professor at the Cyprus Institute. Mihalis has more than 18 years of experience in atmospheric chemistry and physics and he is an author of more than 50 peer reviewed publications and 160 presentation in international conferences. Since 2000, Mihalis worked full time as a principle investigator/scientific partner in 20 national and international projects.

Mihalis’ research interests lie in atmospheric chemistry and physics fields focusing on air quality observations and numerical simulations. The first area of interest involves in situ, ground based and space-based remote sensing observations of major anthropogenic pollutants including short and long-lived trace gases, radicals and particulate matter. For the latter, the focus is to use various levels of information based on the optical-physical and chemical properties of aerosols (e.g. size distribution, concentrations, extinction, chemical composition) in order to draw conclusions on the origin and emission strengths of air masses impacting on regional air quality.

The second field of interest is related to numerical simulations based on the box (0D) and chemical transport (3D) models. The main research goal here is to understand the complex mechanisms and processes controlling the emission, transport, transformation and removal of natural and manmade trace species having an impact on air quality, climate and human health.

Dr. Danielle EL HAJJ currently works as a research assistant, joined the CyI on October 2020. She obtained her PhD in atmospheric physics from Lille University, France. Her PhD thesis subject was Aerosol Hygroscopic Properties: A Laboratory Approach for Single and Multi-Component Inorganic Particles of Atmospheric Relevance.

Iasonas has received his degree in Physics at the University of Crete (UoC). He holds a MSc degree in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Department of Chemistry at UoC. He Joined the Cyprus institute as a research assistant in 2016 directly involved with in situ, long-term and campaign-based, monitoring of key gas phase and particulate pollutants and their chemical and physical properties. He has participated in the establishement of the Cyprus Atmsopheric Observatory stations in both rural and urban sites in Cyprus. Before joining CyI he worked at the UoC atmospheric monitoring station at Finokalia, Crete.

His research focuses on real time fine aerosol chemical composition using online mass spectrometry, source apportionment of the organic fraction implementing receptor modeling techniques, studying aerosol size distributions and New Particle Formation, monitoring the absorption and scattering properties of ambient particulate matter and recently, the design and development of atmospheric monitoring networks based on low-cost technology.

Pierre-Yves Quéhé joined CARE-C of the Cyprus Institute in October 2019 as Technical Research Specialist in Atmospheric sciences.

He received his DUT in physical measurements from Institut Universitaire de Technologie de Lannion (2012), and an Engineer diploma in Systems and Processes for the Measurement and the Instrumentation at Le Mans University (2015).

Pierre-Yves has three years of experience in atmospheric measurement within the ICOS-LSCE team in France, working mainly on long-term monitoring of greenhouse gases. At The Cyprus Insitute, he is in charge of developing the greenhouse gas measurements part through the EMME-CARE project.

Rafail Konatzii is an intern at Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory (CAO) at The Cyprus Institute. He holds an integrated master bachelor of Chemical Engineering from National Technical University of Athens. He is a postgraduate student at Open University of Cyprus (UCy) in the field of Environmental Conservation and Protection. He is a member of the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK).

Elie Bimenyimana received a bachelor degree in Physics (2016), a MSc in Mathematics (2018) and a MPhil in Environmental Sciences (2020) from the University of Burundi, the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and The Cyprus Institute respectively.

During his Masters at the Cyprus Institute, he studied the sources of fine particle (PM2.5) affecting Nicosia.

Currently, he is exploring the spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric PM pollution sources in Cyprus, for his PhD.

Aliki has received a Physics Diploma from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and a MSc in Environmental Physics from the University of Bremen, Germany. During her masters, Aliki was involved in two experimental campaigns investigating the exchange of greenhouse gases from tropical rivers in Malaysia.

She is currently a PhD student in a dual degree between the Cyprus Institute and IMT Lille Douai, France. Her research project is focused on investigating sources of submicron aerosols and gases in the East Mediterranean region. In this context she has participated in field campaigns taking place in Cairo, Egypt and Nicosia, Cyprus.

Emeric started his scientific career at high school in Rambouillet (France) where he aimed for a baccalaureate S which he obtained with honors. This brought him to the university in Versailles (France) where he validated his SVT licence (Science of Life and Earth), there also with honors. Since climate and environmental sciences are his research interests, he is naturally progressing towards a dedicated Master’s degree which he validated once again with mention. During this time, Emeric was able to complete two laboratory-based internships which motivated him to continue in research and therefore in thesis.

Emeric is now in Cyprus to do the first half of his thesis on the contribution of light alkanes to estimates of anthropogenic methane sources in the Middle East.

Yunsong has joined the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of the Cyprus Institute as a PhD student in January 2019. She received a BSc (2015) in Marine Life Resources and Environment at Shandong University in China. Her MSc degree (2018) was on Environmental Science at Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences and the thesis was titled “Measurements of the trace gases over China seas and characterizing the emission sources”. Her PhD project is about assessing GHGs sources from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).

Alkistis Papetta is a PhD candidate at the CAO center of CARE-C. She holds a BSc in Physics by the University of Cyprus and two MSc titles, in Wind Energy and Physics Engineering by Technical University of Denmark and Carl von Ossietzky Universität of Oldenburg.

At her previous position as a Research Associate at Fraunhofer IWES in Germany, her research was focussing on remote sensing measurements of wind and other wind parameters for wind energy applications. She has contribution in Energies 2021 and participation in conferences and workshops focused on wind energy.

Constantina Rousogenous received a Physics Degree from the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens and a MSc in Physics from the University of Cyprus (2014). During her Master, Constantina was involved in the Laboratory of Ultrafast Science of University of Cyprus, performing time-resolved Terahertz Transmission Spectroscopy on nanostructured semiconductors. At the CARE-C she is involved in the technical support and scientific exploitation of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) instrument within the Atmospheric Observations Division (CAO), that involves Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) on greenhouse gases.

Andri Charalambous, joined the Cyprus Institute in December 2019 as a Project Officer at EMME-CARE. As of 1st January 2020 Andri works as a Project Officer of Research & Innovation Support (RISO) at CARE-C, where she is responsible for:

• Support to research project oversight of RIF related projects;
• Support to project administration/coordination (timesheets, progress & financial reporting, deliverables, communication with funding organizations);
• Support logistics for events and meetings;
• Communicate with project partners and stakeholders;
• Participate in communication with funding agencies, the European Commission and the National Contact Points for receiving clarification on various aspects of proposal writing and the relevant regulations;
• Support identification of funding opportunities;
• Aid in the development and creation of proposals for research Grants and Services-Tenders.

She was the Vice-Chair and Grant Holder of the COST Action TN1302 BESTPRAC “The Voice of Research Administrators: Building a network of administrative excellence” (2018-2019).

She worked as a Research Programmes Officer at The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (2012 – 2019) where she provided administrative and management support in several research programs carried out at the institute (National, EU, International).

Andri holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from PA College (2000), with specialization in Accounting & Finance and an MBA from The Open University Cyprus (2015).

Andri is also a Member of the EARMA Thematic group ERION (Ethics and Research Integrity Officer Network).