Collaborations

Dr. Emmanouil Flemetakis is an Associate Professor and a member of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology in the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA). During and after his PhD thesis, he has worked as a visiting researcher in several research institutes including the Max Plank Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology (Golm, Germany), the John Innes Research Centre, Department of Metabolic Biology (Norwich, UK), the Samuel Noble Foundation, Plant Biology Division (Ardmore, Oklahoma, USA), etc. His research expertises include state of the art gene cloning (genomic and cDNA) applications, transcriptomic and metabolomic methods, protein-protein interaction methods, and plant and microbe genetic transformation technologies. Research infrastructure include PCR and real-time PCR equipment, DNA sequencing apparatus, biolistic particle delivery system, electroporation systems, centrifuges, lyophilizers, tissue-disintegrators, cold room, tissue culture facilities etc. During the past years, the group of Dr. E. Flemetakis has been working in characterization of plant, microbial and microalgae genomes and genes involved in main biochemical and physiological processes. He has also actively participated in more than 12 national and international research projects.  Dr. E. Flemetakis has published more than 50 research papers in refereed journals and more than 50 abstracts in national and international conferences. He is a member of the editorial board of the Plant Biology journal, and active reviewer in many high impact scientific journals (Plant Physiology, New Phytologist etc.).

Nikolaos E. Labrou was born on March 22, 1970. He received a Chemistry degree from the University of Patras (Greece) in 1991 and a doctoral degree from the Agricultural University of Athens (Greece) in 1997. He has conducted post-doctoral research in Leeds University (U.K., 1996-1998) and he is currently Professor in Agricultural University of Athens. The central theme of his research has been the development of affinity technology for enzyme purification, and enzyme engineering to create enzymes with improved properties. His work covers aspects of the entire range from pure to applied enzymology. He has addressed questions regarding affinity chromatography and the structure/function of a number of enzyme systems, using a combination of techniques on protein engineering, protein chemistry, structural modeling, and molecular dynamics simulations. He has over 168 publications and he is actively involved in many international collaborations.

Maria Teresa Pacchioli is an agronomist, researcher at CRPA S.p.A. since 1993, today head of the livestock farming group and food and feed laboratories. She has always worked for the innovation of the livestock sector, with the aim of bringing together the demands of the stakeholder and producers with the answers of research and technology. For this reason, in recent years she has dedicated herself particularly to projects demonstrating new agricultural techniques with low environmental impact and technology transfer in the PDO Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and PDO Parma ham sectors, projects that directly involve food companies, especially small and medium enterprises (SME) and farms, as active partners. Today she coordinates the European project LIFE 15 CCM/IT/000039 Forage4Climate, dedicated to the mitigation of climate change in dairy forage systems. She is responsible for some Operational Groups for Innovation in Agriculture related to the rural development plan of the Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Marche regions. Maria Teresa is active in the dissemination through technical-scientific publications, teaching for university and professional education, in Italy and abroad.

Federico Righi is Assistant Professor at the University of Parma, Italy. He graduated cum laude in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Parma in June 2002. From July to December 2002 he made the mandatory post-degree practical training in internal medicine, surgery, food inspection and animal production. From August to December 2004 Dr. Righi worked at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Department of “Animal Science” in the quality of “Visiting Fellower” testing the fiber and nitrogen fractions digestibility of some raw materials for dairy cows nutrition in a trial concerning the recycling of nitrogen in cattle. From 1 November 2005, he is Assistant Professor in Nutrition and Animal Feeding. In 2006 he obtained a Ph.D. in Animal Production, Veterinary Biotechnology, Food Quality and Safety. From 1 November 2008 he is Confirmed Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Animal Feeding (AGR/18 scientific field) at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Parma and he was recepient of the Italian Milk Technicians Association (AITeL) Award “For the originality and scientific validity of the research” in 2008 and 2012. Scientific responsible of different ” Pre-competitive industrial research project, for the development and technology transfer”, he is scientific manager for the University of Parma and leader of the WP3 -Field Research-, Department of Medical-Veterinary Sciences, of the international research project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017 called “CowficieNcy”, GA number 777974 from January 1, 2018 and scientific manager for the University of Parma, and co-leader of the WP4 – Livestock – as part of the H2020-SFS-2016-2017 project called “Organic-PLUS”, GA number 774340 from 1 May 2018. From 2010 he is Coordinator of the Exchange Students Program between the Department of Medical-Veterinary Sciences and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (Ithaca, New York USA) and from 2017 he is coordinator of the committee for the international mobility of the Department of Veterinary Science of the University of Parma. During his career Dr. Righi Federico has been teaching within first level, master and specialisation degree courses relatet to plant biology and animal nutrition.  

Antonello Cannas, M.Sc., Ph.D, Professor of Animal Nutrition, Dipartimento di Agraria, Sezione di Scienze Zootecniche, Università di Sassari, Sardinia, Italy Bachelor in Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Italy (1985). M. Sc. in Animal Science (1995), Cornell University, USA; Chair P.J. Van Soest. Ph.D. in Animal Science (2000), Cornell University, USA; Chair P.J. Van Soest, Co-chair A.N. Pell. Teaching in undergraduate courses: Animal nutrition and feeding; Feeding techniques and diet balancing for ruminants. Erasmus coordinator (1998-2004) and, since 2005, Head of the studies in Animal Science of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sassari. Chair of 11 Ph.D. students, he gave Ph.D. courses in 8 different universities, of which 5 abroad. Main areas of research: ruminant nutrition, with special focus on small ruminants; feed evaluation and palatability; energy and protein requirements of ruminants; rumen function and turnover; milk urea as nutritional indicator; factors affecting milk composition of small ruminants; environmental impact of animal production; indicator of feeding and economical efficiency of ruminants. Invited speaker in 18 symposia and work-shops, of which 12 abroad. Referee of 12 international scientific journal. Author of more than 160 scientific and technical publications. Edited the book: Cannas A., Pulina G., Eds. 2008. Dairy goats feeding and nutrition. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.. Led the development of the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System for Sheep and of its evolution into the Small Ruminant Nutrition System (co-owned and authored with D. G. Fox, Cornell University, USA and L.O. Tedeschi, Texas A & M University, USA). The equations used in these models to predict energy and protein requirements of sheep were adopted as reference equations by the NRC (2007). Nutrient requirements of small ruminants. Sheep, goats, cervids and New World camelids. The National Academies Press, Washington D.C., USA.

Studies: Agricultural University of Athens: 1987-1992 BSc & MSc, Ph.D. Thesis: 1995-1999 Agric Univ of Athens (Scholarship of IKY).
Dr. Honoris Causa USAMV Cluj – Napoca (Sept 2017).
Professor of Organic Agriculture at Agricultural University of Athens (2001-present).
Director of Sector of Agronomy, Breeding & Meteorology of Agric Univ of Athens from 2015.
Professor at University of Ioannina (2002-2007), tutor in Open University of Cyprus (from 2011 until 2014).
Visitor Researcher (1999-2001) at Univ of Bonn with IKY-DAAD scholarship.
A large number of papers in high-profile journals (more than 70 scientific articles in peer reviewed journals); reviewer for a lot of scientific contributions in reviewed journals and member in editorial board – committees for different scientific journals.
General Secretary of Interscientific Society for Organic agriculture in Greece from 2002-2008.
Member of numerous organizations and associations (such as IFOAM, ISOFAR, EWRS,  and others); participation in many international conferences and meetings in domain area.
National representative member at EU-IFOAM, from 2007-2011.
Mannunet 2017-2020. SusTainable explOitation of toMATO proCessing industrY by-produCts.
Balkan Med 2017-2020. FOCUS”- Strengthening competitiveness of agri-food SMEs through transnational Clusters”.
FP7-Eurolegumes «Enhancing of legumes growing in Europe through sustainable cropping for protein supply for food and feed” 2014-2017.
FP7-KBBE«Legume-supported cropping systems for Europe» 20012-2016.

Thrassyvoulos Manios is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture, School of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, TEI of Crete, Head of Department and Director of the MSc Programme in Applied Science and Technology in Agriculture.
He is an Agronomist with a BSc from the Department of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, and holds a BEng from the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, and a Ph.D. from the School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, UK.
His research interests include the management, processing and exploitation (for energy and otherwise) of solid and liquid waste, from either urban or agricultural / agro-industrial sources. He has published over 65 papers in international scientific journals with over 1,000 citations, and over 100 papers and presentations at national and international conferences. He has been Coordinator of over 25 research and development projects. He also holds three patents.
In the Department of Agriculture he teaches the undergraduate courses Irrigation & Drainage, Agricultural Waste Management and Non-Soil Bound Horticulture. He also participates in the teaching of the postgraduate course Business Exploitation of Agricultural Waste.

Product manager at SmithKline & French (1979-1982). CNR grant for one year stage in The Netherlands, at the research center on feeds and animal feeding (I.V.V.O.) in Lelystad (1982-1983). Feed compounder industry consultant and owner of a grant(1983-1988), technician (1988-1992), researcher (1992-1998), associate professor (1998-2002) and professor (since 2002) at the Istituto di Zootecnia Generale of the Facoltà di Agraria di Milano. Responsible of the areas “Environmental education” and “Natural protected areas and biodiversity” of the Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente (since 1997). President of the teaching board council of the degree in “Science of Milk Production and Transformation”, Università degli Studi of Milan (2005-2008). Supervisor of the experimental farms “A. Menozzi” of Landriano (Pavia), “Cascina Baciocca” of Cornaredo (Milan) and “G. Cavalchini” of Borgo Adorno, fraction of Cantalupo Ligure (Alessandria) of the Università degli Studi of Milan (since 2011). President of the teaching board council of the degrees in “Agrarian Sciences and Technologies”, “Agro-technologies for the Environment and the Territory”, and “Production and Defence of Plants and Green Systems” and of the Master degrees in “Agrarian Sciences”, “Agro-Environmental Sciences”, and “Sciences of Plant Production and Defense” of the Università degli Studi of Milan (since 2014). Representative of the Animal Science area within the Steering Committee of the Department of Agrarian and Environmental Sciences, of the Università degli Studi of Milan (since 2012).

Katia Lazaridi is Professor in Geography with emphasis on Environmental Management and Technology in the Department of Geography at Harokopio University. On 1989, she completed his bachelor studies in Physics, Department of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and on 1991, she obtained a M.Sc. Degree in Environmental Protection Technologies, Department of Fuel & Energy, University of Leeds, UK. On 1998, she received a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, UK. Her research interests mainly focus on Sustainable waste management and resource efficiency, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) – Waste prevention – Valorization of organic waste and residues – Composting –Optimization of waste collection and transport, Olive waste management, Industrial Ecology and Environmental risks and environmental security. Her research activity at a national and international level, is depicted by her involvement in 52 published scientific papers at international distinctive journals and her participation on several national and international conferences. Katia Lazaridi is also coordinator and WP leader in several national and European Research Programs.

Andreas Foskolos is an Assistant Professor at the University of Thessaly with emphasis in Cow Breeding and focus on Environmental Pollution Mitigation Strategies. On 2002, he graduated from the Department of Animal Production at Technological Institute, Larisa. Afterwards, he completed his MSc studies in Animal Science, Wageningen University. He gained work experience as an Animal Nutritionist in Industry until he accepted Professor’s Sergio Calsamiglia invitation for a PhD position at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. After his graduation on 2012, he worked as a Postdoc Researcher at Cornell University, USA, under Professor Michael Van Amburgh supervision. There, his research field focused on dairy cows’ nutrition, improving the CNCPS, while he participated on several in vivo and in vitro trials. From 2015 until 2019, he worked as a Research Fellow at Aberystwyth University, Wales, focusing on dairy cows’ precision nutrition. He had published at least 16 scientific articles and more than 44 conference abstracts-papers.