Background and activities

Education

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

PhD in Analytical Chemistry, 2014

MSc in Chemical Analysis-Quality Control, 2010

BSc in Chemistry, 2008

The American College of Greece, Pierce College, Athens, Greece

Graduated, 2003

 

Experience

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

Associate Professor of Environmental Chemistry, 01/2017-Present

 

New York Department of Health, Wadsworth Center, Albany, New York, USA

Research scientist, 10/2014-12/2016

  • Conduct research focused on environmental, pharmaceutical and biomonitoring trace level analysis.
  • Development of trace level analytical methods (based on LC and GC tailored to MS or MS/MS).
  • Conduct routine bioanalysis work.

 

Hellenic Air Force (Mandatory Military Service), Greece

Chemist (specialty) – Sergeant (rank), 09/09/2013 to 09/09/2014

  • Platoon leader during basic training (boot camp; duration 1 month).
  • Quality control of fuels, oils, hydraulics, and fibers used by the Hellenic Air Force.

 

New York Department of Health, Wadsworth Center, Albany, New York, USA

Visiting scholar (under the supervision of Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan), 04/2012 to 03/2013

  • Conduct research that was focused on environmental and biomonitoring trace level analysis studies that were designed to assess the distribution, behavior, fate/metabolism, and effects of organic contaminants/xenobiotics.
  • Developed novel trace level analytical methods (based on LC and GC tailored to MS or MS/MS) to detect organic environmental contaminants, assess human exposure, and identify/develop biomarkers of exposures.

Research Project Highlights:

  • Development and application of LC-MS/MS analytical methods for the determination of benzotriazole and benzothiazole derivatives in wastewater, sewage sludge, indoor dust and human urine. Human exposure in different countries, metabolic pathways and evaluation of sources were characterized for the first time for these chemicals.
  • Development of a novel multi-class LC-MS/MS bioanalytical methodology for the simultaneous determination of bisphenol A diglycidyl ethers, p-hydroxybenzoic acid esters (parabens), benzophenone-type UV filters, triclosan, and triclocarban in human urine. It was extensively applied in a biomonitoring study on Greek population, and exposure levels were established.
  • Development of a GC-MS method for the determination of linear and cyclic siloxanes in wastewater and sewage sludge. Mass loading and fate of these chemicals was assessed in a wastewater treatment plant in Greece.
  • Published 7 scientific papers in high impact factor journals, namely, Analytical Chemistry, Environment International, Environmental Science & Technology, Journal of Chromatography A and Science of the Total Environment.

 

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Research Scientist, 09/2008 to 09/2014

  • Supervision of laboratory operations-Quality Control/Quality Assurance expert.
  • Supervised/trained under-graduate students and post-graduate researchers in developing LCMS/MS methods.
  • Development of standard operating procedure (SOP) manuals for analysis of benzotriazoles, benzothiazoles, and perfluorinated compounds in environmental samples.
  • Development of bioanalytical LC-MS/MS methods for the analysis of neuropsychiatric pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs. Experience in new designer drugs and drug chiral analysis.
  • Research Projects (participated as research associate) in-which benzothiazoles, benzotriazoles, endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals and perfluorinated compounds were investigated in wastewater treatment：

01/2012-12/2013: Thalis project – Investigation of organic micro pollutants in wastewater treatment and study of their behavior during wastewater disposal to the aquatic environments, WATERMICROPOL, Project Leader Dr. Athanasios Stasinakis, University of the Aegean (Ministry of Education, 2012 – 2015).

10/2010-08/2011: Occurrence of emerging pollutants in wastewater of STP of Athens – Evaluation of risk to the aquatic environment from reuse of treated wastewater (Water Supply and Sewerage Company of Athens, EYDAP SA, 2010 – 2011).

 

ELKEDE, Center of Technology & Design, Athens, Greece

Analytical Chemist at the laboratory of Chemical Analysis, Department of Quality Control, 05/2008 to 12/2008

  • Development of standard operating procedure (SOP) manuals for determination of trace elements in leather products by spectrometric techniques (ETAAS, FAAS, AES, ICP-MS).
  • Performing inter-laboratory proficiency schemes and evaluating the outcome.

 

Theses

Under-graduate Thesis, 2008

Construction of portable biosensors based on stabilized lipid membrane for the rapid detection of dopamine and ephedrine in human urine of athletes. Submitted to the Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, 2008.

MSc Thesis, 2010

Determination of bisphenol A, 4-t-octylphenol, and 4-nonylphenol in human blood serum by liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Submitted to the Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, 2010.

PhD Thesis, 2014

Development of methods for the determination of xenobiotic compounds in biological samples by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Submitted to the Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, 2014.

 

Achievements

  • A.G. Asimakopoulos, N.S. Thomaidis, M.A. Koupparis, Recent trends in biomonitoring of bisphenol A, 4-t-octylphenol, and 4-nonylphenol, Toxicology Letters, 2012, 210, 141-154.

Top 25 cited papers in Toxicology Letters, 2011-2016 (Scopus)

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/toxicology-letters/most-cited-articles/

  • A.G. Asimakopoulos, M. Elangovan, K. Kannan, Migration of Parabens, Bisphenols, Benzophenone-Type UV Filters, Triclosan, and Triclocarban from Teethers and Its Implications for Infant Exposure. Environment Science & Technology, 2016, 50 (24), 13539–13547.

It belongs in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric https://acs.altmetric.com/details/14536016#score

 

Citations

Total citations: 1253

h-index: 19

i-10 index: 23

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=INKeNWgAAAAJ

(Source Google Scholarꓼ 15/10/2018)

 

Editorial Activities

Regular reviewer for 18 international journals:

Desalination and Water Treatment, Water Science and Technology Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Environment International, Science of the Total Environment, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Chromatography, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Food Chemistry, Analytical methods, Journal chromatography A, Water Science and Technology, Water Research, Open Biotechnology Journal, Analytica Chimica Acta, Environmental Science and Technology, Current Organic Chemistry, Chemosphere.

  • Outstanding Reviewer Award for Science of The Total Environment (STOTEN)
  • Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing (Chemosphere)

 

Scientific Committees and Activities

  • Member of the American Chemical Society (ACS)
  • Active Full Member in "Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society"
  • Member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC).
  • Session chairman for the SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting, Salt Lake, U.S.A (The title of the session was: “Biomonitoring of Human Exposure Assessment to Xenobiotics”)

 

Languages

Greek: Native speaker.

English: Proficiency of Cambridge, awarded on 2004.

French: Delf 2– Diplôme d’études en langue Française – 2nd degree, awarded on 2005.

Mandarin Chinese: HSK-1 degree, awarded on 2012.

Norwegian (bokmål):  Trinn 3 (competency)

 

June 2019

Scientific, academic and artistic work

Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database

Journal publications

Books

  • Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Bletsou, Anna A.; Kannan, Kurunthachalam; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.. (2015) Recent developments in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry: Advances in liquid chromatographic separations, ionization techniques/interfaces. Wiley-VCH Verlagsgesellschaft. 2015. ISBN 978-1-118-50017-0.
  • Kokotou, Maroula G.; Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.. (2015) Intense sweeteners. CRC Press. 2015. ISBN 9781466556546.
  • Pasias, Ioannis N.; Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.. (2015) Food colours for bakery products, snack foods, dry soup mixes, and seasonings. 2015. ISBN 1782420118.
  • Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Pasias, Ioannis N.; Kannan, Kurunthachalam; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.. (2014) Human exposure to chemicals in PCPs and health implications. Springer. 2014. ISBN 978-3-319-18809-6.
  • Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Kokotou, Maroula G.; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.. (2012) Colorants. CRC Press. 2012. ISBN 9781439830840.
  • Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Nikoleli, Georgia P.; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.; Nikolelis, Dimitris P.. (2012) Methods of analysis of saccharin. CRC Press. 2012. ISBN 9781439815885.
  • Kokotou, Maroula G.; Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.. (2012) Sweeteners. CRC Press. 2012. ISBN 9781439830840.
  • Nikoleli, Georgia P.; Asimakopoulos, Alexandros; Nikolelis, Dimitris P.. (2012) Methods of analysis of acesulfame-K and aspartame. CRC Press. 2012. ISBN 9781439815885.