Last Updated on May 31, 2023
Panos Papanastasiou is Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Cyprus. He is also the founding director of the Program Natural Gas Engineering. He served as the founding Chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2002-2008, founding director of the program of Architecture from 2004-2008 and Dean of the Engineering School of the University of Cyprus, He worked more than 15 years in the Oil & Gas industry as Principal Research Scientist in the Research Center of Schlumberger in Cambridge, England from 1991 to 2002 and as consultant to Schlumberger in U.K. and Russia from 2002-2007. From 2011-2015 was Advisor to the Government of Cyprus on Hydrocarbon exploration and development and gas monetization including LNG plant development. From 2018 he is member of the board of directors of Cyprus Hydrocarbon Company. His expertise and scientific contributions are: a) in Petroleum Engineering and in particular in Petroleum Geomechanics which includes problems on wellbore stability, hydraulic fracturing, sanding prediction and control, reservoir Geomechanics and CO2 geological storage and b) in Oil and Gas management in upstream exploration and production, hydrocarbon management institutions, law, regulations and fiscal systems for hydrocarbon, production sharing contracts, monetization of natural gas and energy outlooks. He has published more than 200 articles in scientific journals and conference proceedings and he invented 3 patents in the field of Petroleum Engineering. He is Editor of the Journal Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment (Elsevier) and Associate Editor in the journal of Rock Mechanics Rock Engineering (Springer).
Ioannis Ioannou is Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Cyprus. He received his first degree (B.Sc. Hons (First Class) in Construction Management) from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1999. He then went on to complete a Ph.D. in Building Engineering (2002) at the same university. The title of his Ph.D. thesis was “Studies of water-mediated processes affecting the decay and conservation of masonry materials”. Prior to his appointment as Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cyprus (August, 2005), Ioannis was a Visiting Lecturer in the same Department for two years (2003-2005). He also worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Edinburgh (2002-2003). Dr. Ioannou is a Member of the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK), an Incorporated Member of the Chartered Institute of Building (C.I.O.B.) and an Affiliate Member of RILEM. He is also a member of several National Technical Committees of the Cyprus Organisation for standardisation (CYS). His research interests include characterization of building materials; capillary liquid transport phenomena in porous media; mechanisms of building stone decay; salt crystallization; weathering and conservation of ancient monuments and buildings.
Dimitrios Loukidis, Associate Professor, received his Diploma in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in July 1999. Upon completion of his undergraduate degree, he pursued graduate studies at Purdue University in the area of geotechnical engineering, where he received his MSCE degree (December 2000) and PhD degree (May 2006). His PhD dissertation was about constitutive modeling of sands and its application to foundation engineering. After completion of his studies, he worked as a post-doctoral research associate at Purdue University (2006-2008). In January of 2009, he joined the faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of the University of Cyprus at the rank of Lecturer. His research interests include foundation engineering, computational geomechanics, constitutive modeling, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering geology, petroleum geomechanics
Dimitris Stagonas, is currently a Lecturer in Coastal Engineering. Prior to this, he was a Lecturer in Offshore Energy Engineering at Cranfield University, a research associate in Coastal and Maritime Engineering in the department of Civil Engineering and the department of Mechanical Engineering at UCL, UK, and a teaching and research fellow in Coastal Engineering, at the department of Civil Engineering, University of Southampton, UK. He holds a degree in Marine Science from the University of the Aegean, Greece, an MSc and a PhD in Coastal Engineering from the department of Civil Engineering, University of Southampton. Dimitris is also the co-author of more than 20 journal publications and more than 37 contributions in peer-reviewed international conferences. He sits on the editorial board of three international journals, he is a reviewer for several scientific journals and an evaluator of research proposals for international funding bodies, like EPSRC (UK) and Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation (Greece). He has participated in, and he has led research projects funded by EPSRC and by the EU, and he has worked closely with international Coastal and Offshore Engineering consultancy firms contributing to the solution of problems associated with the design of coastal defenses, offshore structures, wind and wave energy converters.
Symeon Christodoulou is Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Cyprus. He received a B.Sc. degree, a Master’s of Science (M.Sc., 1992), a Master’s of Philosophy (M.Phil, 1996) and a Doctorate (Ph.D., 1998) in Civil Engineering from Columbia University (New York City, USA).. Upon completion of his PhD, and after several years of industry experience in the field of construction management, he joined Polytechnic University (Brooklyn, New York) as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of the Construction Management Program of the university (1998 – 2003). In 2004 he joined the University of Cyprus, having also worked for a year in Cyprus (construction industry) and in Greece (Democritus University of Thrace) as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Christodoulou is the author of several scientific publications, the recipient of significant research funding (including a prestigious award from the National Science Foundation, NSF), the recipient of two international research awards (London, 1999; Athens, 2015) and of a best-teacher award (University of Thrace, 2003). He has served on several national and international scientific committees (most prominently he has been Cyprus’s national representative to the ESF/COST Domain Committee on transport and urban development, 2006-2013) and Chair of the European Council for Computing in Construction (EC3, 2019-2021), he is a reviewer for over 30 scientific journals (ASCE, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, Springer, IWA, etc.), and a founding Board of Directors’ member of the Nireas International Water Research Center. Dr. Christodoulou’s research and teaching interests are founded on three equally important pillars: (1) Construction engineering and management (primarily topics on resource-constrained scheduling, competitive bidding, building information models, and entropy); (2) Computer-aided engineering (fully integrated and automated project processes in the management of construction, with an emphasis on Building Information Models (BIM) and integrated information management systems, information technology, system integration and soft-computing techniques); and (3) urban infrastructure and risk analysis, with an emphasis on urban water distribution networks (temporal and spatial vulnerability, and waterloss management). In recent years (2020-2022), Dr. Christodoulou has been listed among the (top 2% by research field) Highly Cited Researchers in his field of expertise.
Angelos M. Efstathiou is Professor of Chemistry at the Chemistry Department of the University of Cyprus, and Director of the Heterogeneous Catalysis Lab. He received BSc from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (1981), MSc (1985) and Ph.D (1989) from the University of Connecticut in Chemical Engineering. He teaches courses on Chemical Technology, Catalysis and Physical Chemistry. He has received several awards, namely: CATSA Eminent Visiting Award 2019 (Catalysis Society of South Africa); Royal Award for Sustainable Technology Transfer 2008 (European Environment Agency); First Research Award “Nikos Symeonides – 2007” (Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation); and First European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS) Young Scientists Award (2001). He has collaborated and/or is collaborating with several companies, namely: Linde Engineering AG, Germany (development of H2-SCR NOx control catalytic technology for stationary applications); MEL Chemicals Ltd, UK (research on commercial ceria-zirconia based solids towards TWC applications); and SASOL Technologies Ltd, South Africa (advanced mechanistic studies on commercial FTS catalysts). He has published over 160 refereed international journal papers and received over 6500 citations and has an h-index: 48 (Google Scholar). He has also 65 papers in conference proceedings and 4 book chapters. He has given over 40 invited keynote and plenary lectures, and more than 80 oral presentations in international and national conferences. He is Editor of Catalysis Communications Journal (2016 – ) and member of the Editorial Board of Applied Catalysis B: Environmental (2012 – ) and Catalysts (2019 – ). Professor Efstathiou’s research activities in heterogeneous catalysis are currently focused on catalyst development and in situ characterization, kinetic and mechanistic studies using advanced transient isotopic and operando methodologies (DRIFTS-Mass Spectrometry, UV-vis/DRS-Mass Spectrometry) for the Dry Reforming of Methane, Methanation and Fischer-Tropsch Reactions, Low-T NH3-SCR, H2-SCR of NOx, and Three-Way Catalysis.
Dr Vassilios Kelessidis is Professor and Head of Chemical Engineering Of the University of Qatar. His expertise is in teaching drilling engineering and fluid mechanics, research on flow phenomena in oil well drilling, drilling hydraulics, pressure estimation, cuttings transport, drilling fluids, additive development for high temperature wells, two phase flow, rheology of non-Newtonian fluids, model development, kick analysis, gas analysis, lost circulation materials, transport phenomena, drilling engineering analysis, rock-bit interaction. Research, development and management for more than eight years in engineering and research centers of world’s largest oil service company (drilling, pumping). Development of theoretical models and pilot systems, full scale and extensive field testing of new tools and techniques in drilling and cementing, both onshore and offshore, and pilot system testing, development of new techniques for hydrocarbon identification (patent issued), optimization of cement placement in oil wells, developing novel drilling techniques. He worked from 1986-1990 as Project Leader, Senior Development Engineer, Senior Engineer, for ANADRILL SCHLUMBERGER, Houston, TX, USA, From 1990-1993 Section Head, Senior Development Engineer, DOWELL SCHLUMBERGER, Saint Etienne, FRANCE and from 1993-1994 Programme Leader, SCHLUMBERGER CAMBRIDGE RESEARCH, ENGLAND, University of Crete.
Dr Mike Efthymiou, after studying Civil & Structural Engineering at Manchester University and completing a PhD in Offshore Engineering, joined Shell in 1981. After a 6-year assignment in Research & Development, Mike had roles on asset integrity in Shell UK, Shell Deepwater organisation in Rijswijk and Houston and Lead structural engineer for Sakhalin II Project. Since 2007 Engineering Manager for Offshore Structures & Metocean, for Europe, Middle East & Africa in Shell’s central organisation for Projects and Technology. Current projects include FLNG Project (Prelude, Australia), Ormen Lange (Norway) and Bonga SW (Nigeria). Mike is also representing the Netherlands in ISO Standards Committee TC67/SC7 for Offshore Oil & Gas Standards. He is author of numerous papers and Patents on strength and reliability of offshore structures and deepwater development concepts. Mike has received several Best Paper Awards, notably at Offshore Technology Conference (Houston 2005), Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering (Italy, 1996) and has been recognised as Offshore Industry Pioneer by the US Offshore Energy Centre.
Dr Benjamin Medvedev is Consultant geophysicist at Schlumberger, working with oil and gas companies in the East Mediterranean, based in Israel. His background includes 12 years in the geophysical institute of Israel (GII). He started as a field onsite processing geophysicist for oil companies in Turkey, Georgia, India, Albania and Angola, the work included also presentations in processing centers (WesternGeco in Luanda and Fugro NPA, London) and training of junior geophysicists. Then becoming a Team leader in seismic processing projects such as 2D/3D data for Enel and Edison (Italy), seismic surveys design and supervision of acquisition and interpretation projects. Beside my professional work, he is adjunct lecturer on several courses at the Hebrew university (HUJI) and the Intra university institute for marine sciences (IUI).
Euripides Papamichos is Professor of Mechanics and Director of the Mechanics of Materials Laboratory at the Department of Civil Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is also an Assoc. Senior Scientist at the Formation Physics Department of SINTEF Petroleum Research in Trondheim, Norway. His work includes a variety of petroleum-related geomechanical problems such as sand and chalk production and mechanics, reservoir compaction and subsidence, reservoir geomechanics, and core damage. He has expertise in constitutive and numerical modeling, in thermo-poro-elasto-plasticity, damage mechanics, and micromechanics of granular materials. He is author of over 120 scientific publications and four books and entertains more than 1200 citations in his work. He has been Principal Investigator of over 25 industry and state sponsored research projects. He holds a Diploma in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and MSc and PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota, USA. Previously he worked as a Research Scientist for Elf Aquitaine Production in Pau, France and a Research Associate at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.
Dr Charalampos Konstantinou received his MEng degree in Civil Engineering from NTU of Athens in 2015 with focus in hydraulics and environmental engineering, and his MSc in Environmental Engineering and Business Management in 2016 from Imperial College London. He received his Ph.D in 2020 from the University of Cambridge, where he continued his research as a research associate until August 2021 in the area of groundwater geomechanics. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Prof. Panos Papanastasiou in the Project FLINUGEE, EXCELLENCE/0421/0456 by the Cyprus RPF, RESTART 2016 – 2020 PROGRAMMES, Excellence Hubs. His expertise, scientific contributions and research interests include (a) the generation of artificially cemented sands via microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) and the application of the method for groundwater and land remediation; (b) investigation of mechanical and hydraulic properties of cemented granular materials; (c) the study of various applications related to water resources in which the underlying mechanism is the fluid flow in porous media; (d) the statistical and machine learning modelling of temperature and rainfall water supply networks, and (d) stochastic processes in hydrology and climate.
Dr Nikolas Papadimitriou is a geological officer atthe Cyprus Geological Survey Department. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Cyprus where he teaches the courses on petroleum geology and formation evalution. He worked at HHRM (Hellenic Hydrocarbons company) as a Petroleum Geoscientist where he focused on seismic interpretation of PSTM and PSDM seismic lines located in the Ionian Sea as well as offshore Crete. He was also responsible for the development of 3D geological models and find analogues targeted to the hydrocarbon perspectivity of the area. After receiving his bachelor’s degree at the Physics Department of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki (Greece), Nikolas Papadimitriou obtained his MSc diploma in exploration geophysics from the University of Edinburgh (UK) in 2013. During his MSC he was chosen between 20 students to have an internship with Halliburton. His internship was focused on seismic processing and more particularly on the detectability of microseismic events. In 2014 he started his PhD, which was held under the supervision of UPMC (Pierre and Marie Curie University) and funded by IFPEN (Full scolarship), entitled “Geodynamics and synchronous filling of rift-type basin evolved through compression tectonics: the western margin of the Levant Basin (offshore Cyprus)”. Throughout his B.Sc and M.Sc he developed mathematical skills and learned multiple techniques for hydrocarbon exploration. Nikolas earned his Ph.D. within the framework of a major CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), UPMC (University of Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6) and IFPEN (Institut Français du Pétrole et des Energies Nouvelles). This program is pursuing an integrated study of the western margin of the Levant basin (south of Cyprus Island) in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, more specifically the Eratosthenes Seamount, and its catchments basins, and tackled a variety of aspects, including onshore/offshore processes and margin structure/sedimentary processes. His research interests involve various aspects of applied mathematics, in particular: a) Geophysical methods b) Rock Physics c) Seismic processing; d) Seismic Stratigraphy e) Numerical modelling. He has published four (6) articles (one yet to be accepted) in international scientific journals and eight (8) conference proceedings. He also wrote two (2) industrial reports and organized one (3) field trip onshore Cyprus in the field of hydrocarbons exploration. He is a reviewer at Oil & Gas Science and Technology.