I am a Post Doc Researcher at The George Washington University (Department of Biological Sciences). I hold a PhD in Marine Sciences from Ghent University (Belgium) and University of Bremen (Germany) (2013-2017), after my MSc in Environmental Biology – Management of Terrestrial and Marine Resources from the University of Crete (Greece) (2009-2012) and my BSc in Biology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2003-2009). During my PhD I focused on microbial community functioning of hypoxic ecosystems, such as lagoons and oxygen minimum zones and I was in particular interested in microbes involved in the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and sulfur. Overall, I have vast experience in microbial ecology, metagenomics and eDNA metabarcoding and I have worked with samples from various matrices (e.g. sediments, water, bivalve symbionts). My technical skills involve PCR, high-throughput sequencing, RNA Stable Isotope Probing and bioinformatics analyses. My research interests include Microbial Ecology, Marine Biology and Ecology, Marine Biodiversity, Functional Diversity and Bioinformatics. I was the coordinator of the RECONNECT project (Interreg V-B "Balkan-Mediterranean 2014-2020", co-funded by the European Union (85%) and National Funds of the participating countries (15%), 356 k€) and I had obtained a Post Doctoral Scholarship from State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) (22 k€). I have been involved in >15 research and education projects, including FP7 and H2020, EU COST Actions and ASSEMBLE projects. I have published 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles and participated in international conferences and workshops. [H-Index 13 (Scopus), H-Index 16 (Google Scholar) (15th November 2022)].