My scientific career begun at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens where I was awarded a BSc in the field of exercise sciences. Earning a meritorious Hellenic State Scholarship Foundation award for 4yr allowed me to move to Manchester Metropolitan University, to study for a PhD in clinical exercise physiology with A.J. Sargeant. I trained in muscle physiology / molecular biology and in the organisation and implementation of exercise for health interventions. I capitalised on my PhD training by moving to the University of California San Francisco as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Medicine – Division of Endocrinology under the mentorship of M. Schambelan. At UCSF I run two NIH funded exercise studies: one in HIV infected individuals and the second in end stage renal failure patients. During my postdoctoral training I was trained in MRI and MRS techniques. I also succeeded in my first NIH grant as a PI (mentorship award) and had the opportunity to teach in the human physiology course at the UC Berkeley-Extension. I returned to Europe in 2005 with a European repatriation programme, while in 2008 I became a Researcher at the Centre for Research and Technology Greece until 2013 where I took a faculty position at the Department of PE and Sport Science at he University of Thessaly. From 2016 to 2019 I served as Associate Professor in Clinical Exercise Physiology at the University of St Mark and St. John, in Plymouth, UK. Since January 2019, I hold the position of Ass. Professor in Exercise in Clinical Populations at the Dept of PE and Sport Science at the University of Thessaly and direct the "Exercise is Medicine" lab at the Center (http://www.pe.uth.gr/index.php/en/research/laboratories/item/118). Since August 2019, I hold a Professor of Lifestyle Medicine chair at the Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales, United Kingdom.  My research focuses on the effect of therapeutic exercise on patients with chronic diseases. My pioneering research on patient rehabilitation has been included in various international guidelines, while in 2018 I received the first prize award for the “Best Health Researcher” from the European Federation of Neurological Associations – EFNA for my contribution to the understanding and treatment of Brain Diseases. From 2020 I am the General Secretariat for the “Exercise is Medicine-Greece” association for promoting the benefits of exercise in various clinical populations.

Full Curriculum Vitae