Amalia Karagouni – Kyrtsou

Amalia D. Karagouni – Kyrtsou is Professor of Microbiology in National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology. Since 2002 is Head of the Master Postgraduate Program “Microbial Biotechnology”, Faculty of Biology of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, as well as since 2000 is Head of the Microbiology Laboratory at the same University, accredited to perform qualitative and quantitative GMO detections on food samples, plant tissues and plant seeds 70/3/4862, ISO/IEC 17025). Her research activity also includes creation and conservation of a microbial culture collection of indigenous strains from interesting Greek habitats with biotechnological properties. Specifically, has made numerous studies, such as microalgae and cyanobacteria for biodiesel production, actinobacteria diversity in the Greek territory, bacterial communities in Acropolis marbles, microbial diversity in greek habitats aiming to discover novel pharmaceutical products, antibiotic resistance genes spread in the marine environments, the role of Actinobacteria and other indigenous bacteria in biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons and Zymomonas mobilis for ethanol and  ice-nuclei production using sugar beet molasses. Additionally, she has participated in 35 international and national research projects as project leader. Her scientific publications include 3 books and 61 publications in international scientific journals. She has also  presentations in 168 conferences and has undertaken the organizing committee as chairman of 4 congresses. In the past, she was Advisor for the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Rural Development and Food.