University of Ioannina
The University of Ioannina includes 17 Departments which altogether number 13,523 undergraduate students. Also approximately 1,300 postgraduate students are pursuing a Master's degree, while 2,217 students are currently working on their Doctoral theses.
The Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management (Partner 2) focuses on vegetation ecology, landscape ecology, spatial analysis and geostatistics. The members of the team have participated in national and European projects and have several publications in journals, books and international conferences.
Prof. Panayotis Dimopoulos
Biologist, holds a PhD from the University of Patras (Greece) on Mediterranean Mountain Flora, Vegetation and Ecology. He is currently Professor in Botany and Ecology, at the Departent of Environmental and Natural Resource Management of the University of Ioannina. His research focuses on vegetation ecology of mountainous areas, on overviews of vegetation of various ecosystem types and more specifically in plant diversity, community analysis, monitoring and assessment of natural habitat types and species in protected areas, as well as on assessment of riparian zones applying as biological indicators plants. He has participated in 25 national and 6 European research programmes in 20 of which as principal investigator. He has published 65 articles in International Scientific journals, 80 Announcements in International and Hellenic Congresses, 10 scientific books and 13 articles-chapters in books. He has served as: President of the National Park of Northern Pindos for 2 years (2003-2005), and currently is Deputy President of the National Committee for the protected areas of Greece "NATURA 2000", as well as Director of the MSc Programme entitled: "Sustainable Conservation Management of Protected Areas" (2003-2009) and Head of the Department (2008-2012).
Dr. Nikos Koutsias
Environmentalist, has received his PhD from the School of Forestry of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and he currently holds a position as Lecturer within the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management of University of Ioannina, where teaches courses in remote sensing, GIS and spatial analysis. He has been working in the field of remote sensing and GIS with special emphasis on mapping of burned areas, fire occurrence patterns and change detection for the last 15 years. He has participated in national and European projects (MEGAFIRES, FUEGO, SPREAD, EUFIRELAB) and has several publications in journals, books, and international conferences. Besides remote sensing and GIS, his research interests focus on spatial analysis, point pattern analysis, and geostatistics.
Dr. Athanasios S. Kallimanis
Biologist, got his PhD in Ecology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and is a Lecturer in Environmental Planning in the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Management of the University of Ioannina, since 2007. His research focuses on issues of Landscape Ecology, and more specifically in analysing the spatial pattern of biodiversity under different temporal and spatial scales with an emphasis in protected areas (e.g. Natura 2000 network). He has participated in 5 European and 12 national research projects. He has published 30 peer reviewed articles and made more than 50 oral and poster presentations in national and international conferences.
Dr. Maria Panitsa
Biologist, got her PhD from the University of Patras, and is currently Lecturer of flora and plant geography at the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Management of the University of Ioannina. Her research interests lie in biogeography, diversity and taxonomy of plant species of Greece focusing mainly on islands and habitat islands, as well as in the field of conservation and monitoring of plant species and natural habitats. She participated in 14 national and European research programs. She has published more than 14 peer reviewed articles and has made more than 40 presentations in national and international scientific conferences.
Sandra Coles
MSc., is a Botanist and holds an M.Sc. on Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources. She has worked in various projects focusing on plant species and floristic censuses, as well as on vegetation data elaboration for the Natura 2000 sites and conservation management. The last seven years she is supporting an M.Sc. Program dealing with the sustainable Management of Protected Areas.