APE Group

Athanasios Antonopoulos is a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Sericulture and Apiculture of the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA); his thesis focuses on mapping bee flora from high-spatial-resolution multispectral data. He graduated from the Department of Crop Science of AUA in 2011, and in 2015 he obtained an MSc from the National Technical University of Athens in “Environment and Development of Mountainous Areas”, focusing on the protection and integrated development of mountain regions.

Since 2015 he has worked at the Laboratory of Sericulture and Apiculture of AUA on fixed-term contracts in research projects on mapping bee flora, parasitic diseases of the honey bee, training young people in beekeeping, and the techno-economic analysis of beekeeping. For more than five years he has taught beekeeping in training seminars for farmers and agronomists. He holds an open-category A1, A2 and A3 UAS pilot certificate.

Evangelia Arapostathi is a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Sericulture and Apiculture, Department of Crop Science, Agricultural University of Athens (AUA). Her doctoral research examines nectar secretion of bee plants under different irrigation doses, as well as the biodiversity of pollinating insects, to better understand and adapt to drought.

She graduated from the Department of Crop Science of AUA in 2019 and in 2022 completed the MSc programme “Integrated Plant Protection and Environmental Management Systems”. She is skilled in photogrammetry and GIS software and holds an open-category A1 and A3 UAS pilot certificate.

Zoi Thanou is a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Agricultural Zoology and Entomology of the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA); her thesis focuses on the biodiversity and the systematic and molecular taxonomy of the suborder Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera). She graduated from the Department of Crop Science of AUA, specialising in “Plant Protection and Environment”, in 2016, and in 2018 obtained an MSc from AUA in “Plant Production Sciences and Systems” (Plant Protection and Environment track).

Since 2017 she has worked at the Laboratory of Agricultural Zoology and Entomology of AUA on fixed-term contracts in both national and European (Horizon) research projects. She has authored original research papers in international peer-reviewed journals, as well as papers and abstracts in the proceedings of international and Greek conferences, and has presented her work at European and international entomological conferences.

She is a member of the Entomological Society of Greece, the Geotechnical Chamber of Greece (GEOTEE), the Hellenic Zoological Society and the International Auchenorrhyncha Society (IAS), where she represents Greece on the Board of Advisors (BoA). She has also contributed to the Greek IUCN Red List.

Myrto Stamouli holds a degree in Agriculture and is a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Sericulture and Apiculture, Department of Crop Science, Agricultural University of Athens. Her doctoral research focuses on recording and controlling insect pests of mulberry while investigating the effects on the viability of the silkworm Bombyx mori L.

Her research interests include productive and agricultural entomology. She has experience in the management and rearing of insects such as the silkworm and the blow fly Lucilia sericata, in measuring hatchability and screening silkworm eggs for quarantine pathogens, and in insect systematics.

Christina Panopoulou holds a degree in Agriculture from the Department of Crop Science of the Agricultural University of Athens, specialising in Plant Protection & Environment, and is a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Sericulture & Apiculture of the same department.

She has co-authored two research papers in an international peer-reviewed journal and has given oral presentations at two Greek national conferences and one world congress. She completed her internship at a laboratory in Spain, where she also presented her work orally at the institute’s annual conference. She is experienced with photogrammetry and GIS software and holds proficiency-level certificates in English, Spanish and French.