Dr. Nikolaos Lampadariou graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1990 with a degree in Biology. He obtained his MSc in Marine Biology in 1993 and his PhD in Marine Ecology in 2001, both from the University of Crete. He is currently an Research Director (Researcher, Grade A’) at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Oceanography.
Over the past two decades, he has participated in numerous national and international research pro-jects, the majority funded by the European Union (including EFFECTIVE, FARE, CEFMED, RE-DECO, CINCS, MATER, DESEAS, ADIOS, BIODEEP, HERMES, HERMIONE, MERAMED, MARBEF, DEEPSETS, MANUELA, among others). He has taken part in more than 30 oceano-graphic expeditions aboard a wide range of research vessels (e.g. PHILIA, METEOR, AEGAEO, GARCIA DEL CID, URANIA, SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA, MARIA S. MERIAN), frequently serving as Chief Scientist.
His research spans marine ecology, from organism-level processes to large-scale patterns, with a particular focus on the impacts of anthropogenic pressures and climate change on marine ecosys-tems. Much of his work has contributed to advancing meiofauna research in the relatively under-studied Eastern Mediterranean, especially in deep-sea environments, with emphasis on the biodiver-sity and ecology of free-living marine nematodes.
Dr. Lampadariou has served on several scientific committees and panels (including as an EU project evaluator), and was Chair of the International Association of Meiobenthologists from 2010 to 2013. In addition to his research activities, he has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Crete and has supervised 12 MSc and 4 PhD theses.
He has authored more than 100 scientific articles and reports, including 57 publications in peer-reviewed international journals (Scopus h-index: 26; >4,000 citations), with papers published in high-impact journals such as Nature and PLoS ONE.
Some recent publications are listed below:

Harbuzov Z, Tom M, Danovaro R, Gambi C, Carugati L, Lubinevsky H, Lampadariou N (2024) First checklist of free-living marine nematodes from the Israeli coast of the Mediterranean. Mediterranean Marine Science 25:287–299.
Tselepides A, Sevastou K, Lampadariou N (2023) Environmental factors influencing the benthic ecology of the deep Eastern Mediterranean Sea – A review. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 202:104177.
Lampadariou N, Sevastou K (2022) Deep-sea meiofauna diversity. In: Deep-sea Atlas of the East-ern Mediterranean Sea. IUCN-HCMR DeepEastMed Project, Otero M, Mytilineou C (eds) IUCN Gland, Malaga, p 173–184
Tsikopoulou I, Dimitriou PD, Karakassis I, Lampadariou N, Papadopoulou N, Smith CJ (2021) Temporal Variation in the Ecological Functioning of Benthic Communities After 20 Years in the Eastern Mediterranean. Frontiers in Marine Science 8:1510.
Lampadariou N, Syranidou E, Sevastou K, Tselepides A (2020) Meiobenthos from biogenic struc-tures of the abyssal time-series station in the NE Pacific (Station M). Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 173:104720.
Lampadariou N, Eleftheriou A (2018) Seasonal dynamics of meiofauna from the oligotrophic con-tinental shelf of Crete (Aegean Sea, eastern Mediterranean). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 502:91–104.