Speaker

Dr Xenia I. Loizidou is a graduate civil engineer of the National Technical University of Athens, holds an MSc, DIC in coastal Engineering from the Imperial College of London and a PhD on participatory decision support systems for natural resources management from Aristotle University, Thessaloniki. For 30 years she has worked in more than 50 countries as a researcher, as European and international expert, a volunteer and an activist in the fields of coastal and marine environment, climate change/ adaptation solutions, marine litter, green and blue growth/economy, gender issues, women economic empowerment, peacebuilding, stakeholder involvement, participatory decision making and sustainable development. She holds several offices and has received numerous international awards for her work on sustainability, climate change, marine environment and gender equality, such as the Iconic Woman Award by the Women Economic Forum in New Delhi, 2016, the title of Ambassador of Mediterranean Coasts by UNEP, 2019, celebrated science for Women’s Day 2025, by Mission Ocean EU as one of the four women in ocean et etc. Her work is included in the U.S. State Department’s ‘1000 Ocean Actions’ initiative and she is highlighted in 20th anniversary report of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report GEM 2018/2019. Since 2020 Xenia is Member of the Compliance Committee of the Barcelona Convention, member Executive Committee/Leadership Council of the Cyprus Sustainable Development Network of UN (SDSN Cyprus, since 2020), Chairperson of the Advisory Experts Committee/Department of Civil Engineers, University of Cyprus (2022), Analyst/ Researcher of the Greek Think Tank on European and Foreign Policy, ELIAMEP (2022), Member of the External Experts Advisory Board of the European University Alliance EU Conexus (2023). She is the author/ co-author of more than 200 published papers in Scientific Journals and International Conferences, books and Technical Reports. She is co-founder of the engineering research-SME, ISOTECH Research and Consultancy, which has partners and projects in 30 countries and founding member and the Chairperson of the NGO AKTI Project and Research Centre which has cooperations in more than 50 countries. She is the mother of two daughters, Leda and Maria.