AC Laskaridis Charitable Foundation, has recently awarded  Irina Kandylioti, a Ph.D. student at the Chenveng School, an annual scholarsip. Irina conducts her thesis research at the Laboratory of Aquatic Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Elia Psillakis. Her doctoral thesis title is ‘’The impact of single use plastics to the aquatic environment’’ and her research field focuses on the recent critical pollution problem that the pandemic of Covid-19 has caused, as well as the treatment of this latest form of pollution using novel and environmentally friendly approaches.

Irina Kandylioti has studied Environmental Engineering at the TUC and while an undergraduate student she has cooperated  with the Laskaridis Foundation for the Typhoon Project, the biggest cleaning action of the Greek coastline, which was followed up by the SeaChange programme, an effort of the foundation to eliminate the use of single use plastics from 10 Cyclades islands. Both programs aim to monitor and manage marine plastic pollution in Greece and also prevent further environmental degradation by raising public awareness.