Dr. Ioanna Varkitzi (email: ioanna@hcmr.gr) is a Biologist-Oceanographer (PhD) in the Institute of Oceanography of HCMR. 

She holds a Diploma in Biology, an MSc in Oceanography and a PhD on the ecology of harmful microalgae and their impact on the marine benthic ecosystem (2010, University of Athens). She has received training in international Institutes and Universities in Italy, Spain, France, Denmark and Germany. She has more than 23 publications in peer-reviewed Journals, Conference Proceedings and Special editions. She is a reviewer in international peer-review Journals.

She has participated in more than 15 european and 18 national research projects, e.g. MARINE-EO (H2020) as Principal Investigator for HCMR, MSFD monitoring project (EU and NSRF) as Project manager, MEDREGION (EU project), MEDCIS (EU project) as Subtask responsible, ACTION-MED (EU project), IRIS-SES (EU project), PERSEUS (FP7), MEDSEA (FP7), SESAME (FP6), FATE (FP5) etc.

Her research focuses on: 
- Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) diversity and dynamics, production of toxins and interactions in food webs (field and laboratory studies)

- Marine monitoring, diversity and eutrophication indicators for water quality assessment, downstream tools for blooms detection

- Marine phytoplankton diversity and dynamics

- Microalgae cultures, ecophysiology, bioremediation and biotechnological applications.

She is an expert on the assessment of environmental status in coastal and pelagic waters with the use of biodiversity and eutrophication indicators (eg in the framework of the EU Directives WFD and MSFD). She has participated as an expert in the Mediterranean Geographical Intercalibration Group (MEDGIG) of the European Water Framework Directive, Intercalibration Phase 3-Coastal Waters, Biological Quality Element Phytoplankton, coordinated by Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC). She has also participated as an expert in the Informal online working group on Eutrophication of the United Nations Environmental Programme/Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP, 2015).

See publication list in https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ioanna_Varkitzi/research

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4VB9JzcAAAAJ