Despo Fatta-Kassinos is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Cyprus. She served as the founding director of Nireas International Water Research Center from 2019 until 2022. She holds a Diploma and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Since 2003, she has attracted ca. 14.4 million € as project coordinator/principal investigator. She is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the African Center of Excellence in Water and Environment Research in Nigeria, and a member of the advisory boards of various water research centers in Europe including the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), in Spain. She served as the founding leader of the WG5 'Wastewater reuse' of NORMAN Association from its creation until 2019. She is a founding member of the International Ph.D. School on Advanced Oxidation Processes and member of its Scientific and Management Committee. She has also served as the Chair of the Scientific and Technological Advisory Board of the European JPI 'Water Challenges for a Changing World' (2015-2019). Her publication record includes 193 papers in refereed journals, 3 environmental books (co-editor), various book chapters, and 136 international conference papers. She has more than 33000 citations and an h-index of 81 (Google Scholar). She is a Highly Cited Researcher since2018 (ranked in the top 1% by citations). She is Executive Editor of the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, and Editor of Water Research, Elsevier. Among other prizes, in 2012 she received the distinguished national research award by the Research and Innovation Foundation of Cyprus, while in 2022 the Noack Laboratorien Outstanding Science Career Award by The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). In 2024, she became the first female scientist from Cyprus elected to the Academy of Europe, in the Class of Exact Sciences, in the Section of Engineering.