Professor (e) Themistokles Lekkas

Former Rector University of Aegean

Themistokles Lekkas was born in Korinthos where he completed his elementary and secondary education.

He studied Chemical Engineering at NTU of Athens (1961-1966), served in the Greek Army (1966-1968) and worked for the Skalistiris Concern and Ethyl Hellas as Production Engineer, head of the Plant and Unit Supervisor.

He completed his postgraduate studies in England at the Imperial College of Science and Technology and was awarded MSc (1974, with distinction) and PhD (1977) in Environmental Engineering.

Returning to Greece he worked at KEPE (Center of Economic Research and Programming) where he completed a study for siting Greek industry with environmental criteria (1977-1979) and in HIMIC (Hellenic Industrial and Mining Investment Cooperation), a consortium of four leading Greek Banks, as Engineering Manager and acting General Manager. He was also consultant at the Federation of Greek industries from 1977 to 1983.

During this time, he continued his cooperation with the Imperial College of Science and Technology.

Between 1985 and 1989, he served as the Managing Director of the Messologi Saltworks SA and Greek Saltworks SA. From 1993 to 2002 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Greek Saltworks SA. During the years in which he served as Director and Chairman of Greek Saltworks, they operated profitably.

From 1993 up to date he is consultant to HERRCO (Hellenic Recovery and Recycling Corporation) and has greatly contributed to the development of Packaging Waste recovery and recycling in Greece (mainly the Blue Bin project).

From May 2010 up to November 2012, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of EYDAP. During this period EYDAP did not need any financial loans and in fact reported considerable profits without any increase in the price of water.

He taught Environmental Technology as visiting Professor in the Mining Engineering Department at the NTU of Athens (1985-1989), and as Professor of the Environmental Studies Department at the University of Aegean (1987-2010). He established the water and air quality laboratory in this Department.

In 1993 he was appointed as executive Vice President of the Governing Board of the University of Aegean and later (1997) he was elected Rector of the University and re-elected in 2000. During the ten years in which he was the executive of the University of Aegean, it developed into one of the larger Universities in Greece.

Professor Themistoklis Lekkas has published with his team about 200 papers (4237 citations, h index 39), has supervised 20 doctorate students and has also presented many scientific works in conferences.

He was member of many scientific and administrative committees in Greece and abroad, participated in a number of working groups (law preparation, technical, administrative) and has completed a number of reports as consultant for environmental issues.

He is the author of two books, “Environmental Engineering I”, which covers the supply and treatment of potable water, the water resources and their quality (676 pages) and “Environmental Engineering II”, which covers the treatment and final disposal of waste water (532 pages). He has also co-authored with J. Razis the book “Comparative Presentation of the Solid Waste Treating Methods”.

He has published more than 30 volumes of the proceedings of fifteen Conferences of Science and Technology. He has also published two volumes of the corresponding Conferences of Environmental Education and two volumes of the global Corresponding Conferences on the “Ecological Significance of Solar Saltworks” (1st CEISSA, Santorini 2006, 2nd CEISSA Merida Mexico). He was also the organizer of these Conferences.

He is the founder of the “Global Network of Environmental Science and Technology”. This network has members in 75 countries.

He is the Editor of “Global NEST Journal”. This scientific journal publishes papers in the English language, is open access and is covered by ISI and Scopus.

He is Chairman of the Hellenic Agricultural Academy (since 2013) and also member of many scientific and social organizations.