Dr. Eleni Maloupa | Curator of Balkan Botanic Garden, Kroussia, Greece

Dr. Eleni Maloupa is an agronomist. She has graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and had her PhD in Biology and Physiology of Plants in the Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris. She is a full researcher at the Institute of Plant Breeding and Phytogenetic Resources of the Hellenic Agricultural Organization Dimitra and Headmistress of the Agricultural Production Institutes of Northern Greece. She is an honorary member of the Association of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Greece.
Her research interests are primarily focused on the protection, conservation, propagation, cultivation and sustainable utilization of the diversity of Greek plants, with an emphasis on aromatic-pharmaceutical plants, floricultural and edible native plants of Greece. She is the instigator, creator and scientifically responsible both for the Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia (Pontokerasia, Kilkis Perfecture, Greece) and for the Laboratory for the Conservation and Exploitation of Native and Floricultural Species (Thermi, Thessaloniki, Greece). She is also a scientific advisor of the Botanic Garden of the Aegean (Chios Island, Greece) and the Botanic Garden of Kefalonia Island; she is the prime mover in the development of a Hellenic Botanic Garden Network. She is the national representative of Greece in the European Botanic Gardens Consortium (Botanic Gardens Conservation International, BGCI) and a member of the steering committee of the international conservation network PLANTA EUROPA. She has taught for several years at Alexander Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki (ATEITH), at the University of Thessaly, at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH), as well as at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Biology (in MSc level). Also she has taught at the American Farm School in Thessaloniki and at various Agricultural Centres or Centres of Vocational Training. Much of her research work has been published both in Greek and in international scientific journals and books. She has planned and carried out important scientific programmes in corporation with researchers of international recognition. She has implementing pilot programmes on new cultivations of native plants of Greece and their processing methods in corporation with groups of producers or Social Enterprises in various regions of Greece. She has organised three international congresses as well as many other workshops and events. She has taken part in researches relevant to the sustainable exploitation of native Greek plants, in actions aiming to spread the research results and in programmes of environmental education. She was a member of several evaluation committees of academic institutions, of MSc and Doctoral theses, evaluations of researchers and academics as well as in scientific committees of Greek and international conferences. Also she has been a reviewer for international scientific journals.
She has organized numerous tasting events on aromatic plants both for Greek and international scientific audiences along with other associates. Her family, friends and associates enjoy her passion for cooking and good Greek wine.
She is married has three children. She was born in the Mastichochoria of the island of Chios.