Advisory Board and Editors Ecotoxicology
Diaa Abd El-Moneim
My academic journey began with an MSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Suez Canal University, where my research focused on evaluating drought tolerance and disease resistance in wheat, providing a solid foundation in abiotic stress tolerance. This early work fueled my commitment to understanding and addressing plant resilience under stress conditions. Thanks to an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, I pursued my PhD at Complutense University of Madrid, where I investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying aluminum stress tolerance in rye. Notably, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship funded by AECID just before defending my thesis—a pivotal achievement that underscored the relevance of my research. This fellowship enabled me to join the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid. I gained expertise in proteomics, gene expression analysis, and molecular tool development to improve plant abiotic stress resilience. These experiences greatly expanded my knowledge of gene regulation and stress physiology and led to high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Abd El Moneim’s research encompasses multiple domains, including the study of morphological , physiological, and molecular mechanisms that govern plant responses to stress factors such as salinity, drought , aluminum toxicity, heat, and pathogens. His work in identifying gene families and stress-responsive proteins is complemented by his efforts to apply DNA barcoding and chloroplast genomic assemblies for species identification and development of molecular markers, as well as contributing to taxonomical and evolutionary concepts and identifying transcriptional regulators critical for stress adaptation, with particular emphasis on crops like wheat and wild plants adapted to extreme environments. His methodologies include designing and analyzing field trials , protein analysis, nucleic acid extraction, fingerprinting , GWAS , and the characterization of chloroplast genomes. Dr. Abd El Moneim’s expertise in molecular breeding and genomics focuses on improving abiotic stress tolerance in staple crops, especially for agriculture in developing countries.
Susana Agusti
Dr. Susana Agusti is Professor of Marine Science at KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) at the Red Sea Research Center, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Tromsø (Norway).
She holds Bachelors and Ph.D. degrees from the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Formerly she was Research Professor with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and Professorial Fellow with the UWA Oceans Institute and the School of Plant Biology at the University of Western Australia (Australia).
Marc Amyot
Canada Research Chair in Global Change Ecotoxicology, professor of biological sciences, Université de Montréal. Director of NSERC CREATE network Mine of Knowledge.
Carmen Arena
Carmen Arena is Associate Professor in Ecology at the Department of Biology of the University of Naples Federico II. She conducts researches in the ecological disciplines, dealing with studies concerning photosynthesis and morpho-functional adaptation strategies of higher plants and macroalgae in response to mono and multiple stresses in natural and controlled environments, with applications in ecological, biotechnological and agronomic field.
The research activity holds three main issues:
1) Regulation of the photosynthetic process in higher plants and macroalgae in response to ecological factors in the context of environmental change.
2) Study of plant growth in an extra-terrestrial environment.
3) Plant-soil interactions in natural and anthropized ecosystems.
These researches include a) the eco-physiological response of crop species to light quality; (b) the morpho-functional strategies of plant in phytoremediation studies (c)) the relationship between soil pollution, edaphic communities and photosynthesis in higher plants used in biomonitoring studies.
C. Arena is author of 130 publications peer-reviewed ISI-WoS/Scopus, and participated to more than 150 National and International congresses and workshops, most of them as speaker and invited speaker.
Mehmet Burak Ateş
Dr. Mehmet Burak ATEŞ is a researcher supporting the integration of innovative educational technology for clinical teaching and learning in veterinary health sciences.
His special interests are veterinary pathology, experimental pathology, toxicopathology, molecular pathology, molecular oncology, liver and brain pathology.
Dr. Ateş's portfolio includes a wide range of scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedings published.
Annemariè Avenant-Oldewage
Prof. Annemariè Avenant-Oldewage is Professor of Zoology at the University of Johannesburg. Her research group uses fish parasites as sentinels for environmental degradation and describes the morphology (including genetic characterisation), ecology and pathology of these fish parasites. They are currently focusing on Diplozoidae, Gyrodactylidae, Nematoda, Copepoda and Branchiura.
Pasquale Avino
Prof. Pasquale Avino received his Master Degree in Chemistry in 1992 and his Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 1997.
He was appointed as Post-Doc (1997-1998) at the Department of Chemistry of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in the Rowland (Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1995) and Blake group. From 1999 until January 2018, he was appointed as Researcher at the ISPESL/INAIL Research Center, and from February 2018 to January 2021, was appointed as Three-years Term Researcher contract (RTDB).
In February 2021, Prof. Avino was appointed Associate Professor in Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry within the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, at the University of Molise, Campobasso.
His current research follows studies devoted to the development of innovative analytical methodologies for development and application of analytical and sampling methods for the qualitative and quantitative determination of chemical compounds (e.g., contaminants, pollutants, nutrients) in food, agricultural, biological and anthropogenic matrices.
In 1988, he was the recipient of the “Group Achievement NASA Award”, and the “Next Generation Award” during the 22nd International Symposium on Chromatography. In 2003 he was the recipient of the “Environmental Sapio” Award for his research in the environmental field. In 2022 he received the Medal for Ecology from the Moldavian Chemical Society.
Thomas Backhaus
Professor for Ecotoxicology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg, with a main interest in regulatory (eco)toxicology and risk assessment of complex exposure situations.
Donald J Baird
Research Scientist in the Water Science & Technology Directorate of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Visiting Research Professor in the Biology Department at the University of New Brunswick and Science Director of the Canadian Rivers Institute.
His primary research interests include the study of watershed patterns in aquatic biodiversity and the influence of landscape stressors on resident biota. Current research concerns freshwater invertebrates, with dragonflies as a particular focus. He has previously worked on a variety of taxa groups from flatworms to fish, and in a variety of habitats from wetlands, lakes and rivers to coastal marine systems.
Teri Balser
Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in soil microbiology came from the University of California at Berkeley, and she completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was recently named to the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Her research centers on understanding microbial community-level ecophysiological responses to stress, disturbance, and change, and the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning. She has worked in countries worldwide studying restoration, carbon sequestration, invasive species, biodiversity, and land use/land cover.
In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in Science, Technology Engineering and Math education (STEM). She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education.
Julian Blasco
Dr Julian Blasco received his Ph.D. from the University of Seville (Chemistry). He is Scientist in the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).He was Director of ICMAN-CSIC (2015-2023) and he is responsible of research group "Ecotoxicology, Ecophysiology and Biodiversity of Aquatic Systems". He has published more than 230 articles in SCI journals and has been editors of several books. He is a member of the editorial boards of several journals in marine and environmental sciences.
Isabella C. Bordon
Bachelor of Science - Biology (Sao Paulo State University-UNESP/Brazil); Master of Science (Fisheries Institute of Sao Paulo State); PhD. (Nuclear and Energy Research Institute-IPEN/Brazil). Post doc - UNESP/Brazil and University of Sao Paulo -USP/Brazil.
Previous experiences include Biomonitoring and Environmental Chemistry (metals).
Interests in new projects includes Environmental sustainability in Production Engineering and R&D