Panayotis PANAYOTIDIS, born in Thessaloniki (Greece) at 1953. BSc in Natural Sciences (1975) from the University of Thessaloniki (Greece), MSc in Oceanography and PhD in Marine Biology (1980) from the University of Aix-Marseilles (France). 

Researcher at the Hellenic Center for Marine Research (HCMR) since 1983 and research director since 2000. 

During the last 35 years he worked as partner in several marine environment research projects in the research fields of seagrass and algae taxonomy, biology and ecology, benthic communities structure and function, evaluation of eutrophication and water quality status, and rapid environmental assessment and as coordinator of the habitat mapping project in the Greek marine Natura network (2000-2005), the monitoring Ecological Quality Status in the Greek coastal and transitional water bodies network (2006-2015) and the monitoring programs of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2016-2019). 
As member of scientific working group of Habitats Directive (HD) as well as for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) in Greece he has contributed to the implementation of the nature legislation on the national and the European level. On the national level he has collaborated with the Greek authorities in the design of the marine Natura-2000 network in Greece.

As member of the EU marine experts working group he has contributed to the re-definition of the marine habitat types and their eventual use for offshore Natura sites. 
For the implementation of the WFD in the Mediterranean he participated to the Mediterranean Geographic Intercalibration Group (phase I 2005-2007, phase II 2009-2010) and the elaboration of original methods for the environmental quality evaluation. Since 2009 is national delegate to the WG on GES for the implementation of the MSFD.

From 2007 to 2017 Dr. Panayotidis teached at the Technical University of Athens “Sustainable management of water-systems”, based on EU legislation and its implementation. He is author or co-author of more than 50 papers and international technical reports (EU & UNEP), member of the CIESM, the European Federation of Oceanographers, the Phycological Society and the “GIS Posidone” (France).