Dr. Manolis Tsapakis, Chemist-Oceanographer. He is Researcher Director (Level A) of Institute of Oceanography at HCMR. 

He holds a Ph.D in Environmental Organic Chemistry (2003) and a B.Sc. (1993) in Chemistry from the University of Crete, Greece. His work has contributed to the understanding of air-water cycling and long-range transport of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the remote eastern Mediterranean, and he participates in the AQUAGAPs network studying the global distribution of POPs in the aquatic ecosystems. He heads an active research team working to link the chemical characteristics and transformations of the engineered nanoparticles with the dynamics in the abundance, activity, and community structure of the marine pelagic food web. 

His work also has contributed to developing new methodologies to assess the ecological status of the marine ecosystem. Site selection and the environmental sustainability of marine aquaculture is also one of his main research activities. Currently, he is working as a team leader or principal investigator in a number of ongoing EU and other international research projects including TAPAS, AQUAPEF, IDMA, WFD, MSFD, REPHIL, AQUACOSM etc.