Biomedical Research Foundation Academy Of AthensAcademy Of Athens
Scientific Personnel

Christos Christos Zerefos, PhD
Affiliated Investigator

Telephone : +30 210 6597216


Center :

Environmental Effects on Health

Lab Site :

Zerefos Lab


Brief Bio

Christos Zerefos, Secretary General, Academy of Athens. Head, Research Center for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology, Academy of Athens. Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the Universities of Athens, Thessaloniki, Visiting Professor, Universities of Minnesota and Boston. Samarbeidspartnere (Scientific Collaborator), University of Oslo. Climate Envoy for Greece. Member, Academy of Athens, Academia Europaea, Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, European Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and other distinguished scientific societies. He has been known for his research in ozone, UV, ozone-climate interactions and climate extreme events. His research led to important contributions to international agreements such as the Montreal Protocol.

Has received a number of internationally recognized awards, among which the Order of Honour from the President of the Hellenic Republic and the French Government Decoration “Commandeur dans l’ordre de Palmes académiques”. Honorary Professor of the Physics Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Honorary Doctorate Degree of the University of Patras and of the University Division of the American College ANATOLIA. Global Ozone Award, UNEP on the 10th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol, Award Certificate and Letter from UNEP and from IPCC for his substantial contribution to the reports of IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the former Vice President of USA, Al Gore. Excellence in Refereeing and The Yoram Kaufman Award of the American Geophysical Union, the Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences, UNEP Honourable Mentions. Honorary Member of the International Ozone Commission, the Gold Medal of the City of Thessaloniki, Badge of Honor of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Award and “Ioan Ursu” Medal of the Balkan Physical Union, the "European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award" awarded to the National Observatory of Athens. In the past 20 years has acted as author, contributor or reviewer in almost all WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessments of Ozone Depletion and as reviewer for IPCC reports on aviation and on extreme events. Has supervised 55 masters and more than 30 PhD theses. More than 200 research papers, h-index 55 (from Web of Knowledge, March 2021).

His proposal to the Greek Government for the creation of a flexible international mechanism to protect natural and cultural heritage monuments from climate change has been included in the emblematic UN activities by H.E. the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres. This initiative has been supported by 80 countries, by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization.

Has created from zero (1) The Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology, Academy of Athens (1978) (2) The Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1981) (3) The WMO Northern Hemisphere Ozone Mapping Centre (1991) (4) The Graduate Programme on Environmental Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1991) (5) The Center for Environmental Effects on Health , Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens (2003) (6) The UNESCO Chair on Natural Hazards in the Geosphere, the Hydrosphere and the Atmosphere (2006-2020) (7) The Geoastrophysics Museum, National Observatory of Athens (2008) (8) The Navarino Environmental Observatory in Messenia with the University of Stockholm and TEMES S.A. (2009).

URL: www.christoszerefos.com | URL: https://montrealprotocolwhoswho.org

Selected Publications

Zerefos, C., S. Solomos, J. Kapsomenakis, A. Poupkou, L. Dimitriadou, I. Polychroni, P. Kalabokas, C. Philandras, D. Thanos, “Lessons learned and questions raised during and post‑COVID‑19 anthropopause period in relation to the environment and climate”, Environment Development and Sustainability, Springer, DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-01075-4, 2020.

Zerefos, C., J. Kapsomenakis, K. Eleftheratos, K. Tourpali, I. Petropavlovskikh, D. Hubert, S. Godin-Beekmann, W. Steinbrecht, S. Frith, V. Sofieva, B. Hassler, “Representativeness of single lidar stations for zonally averaged ozone profiles, their trends and attribution to proxies”, Atmos. Chem. Phys.,18(9), 6427-6440, 2018.

Zerefos, C. S., K. Eleftheratos, J. Kapsomenakis, S. Solomos, A. Inness, D. Balis, A. Redondas, H. Eskes, M. Allaart, V. Amiridis, A. Dahlback, V. De Bock, H. Diémoz, R. Engelmann, P. Eriksen, V. Fioletov, J. Gröbner, A. Heikkilä, I. Petropavlovskikh, J. Jarosławski, W. Josefsson, T. Karppinen, U. Köhler, C. Meleti, C. Repapis, J. Rimmer, V. Savinykh, V. Shirotov, A. M. Siani, A. R. D. Smedley, M. Stanek, and R. Stübi, “Detecting volcanic sulfur dioxide plumes in the Northern Hemisphere using the Brewer spectrophotometer, other networks, and satellite observations”, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 551–574, doi: 10.5194/acp-17-551-2017, 2017.

Luterbacher, J., Werner, J. P., Smerdon, J. E., Fernández-Donado, L., González-Rouco, F J., Barriopedro, D., Ljungqvist, F. C., Büntgen, U., Zorita, E., Wagner, S., Esper, J., McCarroll, D., Toreti, A., Frank, D., Jungclaus, J. H., Barriendos, M., Bertolin, C., Bothe, O., Brázdil, R., Camuffo, D., Dobrovolný, P., Gagen, M., García-Bustamante, E., Ge, Q., Gómez-Navarro, J. J., Guiot, J., Ha, Z., Hegerl, G. C., Holmgren, K., Klimenko, V. V., Martín-Chivelet, J., Pfister, C., Roberts, N., Schindler, A., Schurer, A., Solomina, O., von Gunten, L., Wahl, E., Wanner, H., Wetter, O., Xoplaki, E., Yuan, N., Zanchettin, D., Zhang, H., and Zerefos, C.: “European summer temperatures since Roman times”, Environmental Research Letters, 11, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/024001, 2016 Selected in the “Highlights of 2016" collection by the Editors of the Journal.

Zerefos, C. S., Tetsis, P., Kazantzidis, A., Amiridis, V., Zerefos, S. C., Luterbacher, J., Eleftheratos, K., Gerasopoulos, E., Kazadzis, S., and Papayannis, A.: “Further evidence of important environmental information content in red-to-green ratios as depicted in paintings by great masters”, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 14, 2987–3015, doi: 10.5194/acp-14-2987-2014, 2014 Selected as “Research Spotlight" by the Editors of the Journal.

Inness, A., Baier, F., Benedetti, A., Bouarar, I., Chabrillat, S., Clark, H., Clerbaux, C., Coheur, P., Engelen, R. J., Errera, Q., Flemming, J., George, M., Granier, C., Hadji-Lazaro, J., Huijnen, V., Hurtmans, D., Jones, L., Kaiser, J. W., Kapsomenakis, J., Lefever, K., Leitão, J., Razinger, M., Richter, A., Schultz, M. G., Simmons, A. J., Suttie, M., Stein, O., Thépaut, J.-N., Thouret, V., Vrekoussis, M., Zerefos, C., and the MACC team: “The MACC reanalysis: an 8 yr data set of atmospheric composition”, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 4073-4109, doi:10.5194/acp-13-4073-2013, 2013.

Kuglitsch, F. G., Toreti, A., Xoplaki, E., Della-Marta, P.M., Zerefos, C.S., Türkes, M., and Luterbacher, J.: “Heat wave changes in the eastern Mediterranean since 1960”, Geophysical Research Letters, 37, L04802, doi: 10.1029/2009GL041841, 2010. Selected as “Research Spotlight" from the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Philandras, C.M., P.T. Nastos, J. Kapsomenakis, K.C. Douvis, G. Tselioudis, C.S. Zerefos, “Long term precipitation trends and variability within the Mediterranean region”, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 3235-3250, 2011.

Sausen, R., I. Isaksen, V. Grewe, D. Hauglustaine, D.S. Lee, G. Myhre, M. Köhler, G. Pitari, U. Schumann, F. Stordal, C. Zerefos, “Aviation radiative forcing in 2000: An update on IPCC (1999)”, Meteorol. Z., 14, 4, 555-561, 2005.

Stohl, A., P. Bonasoni, P. Cristofanelli, W. Collins, J. Feichter, A. Frank, C. Forster, E. Gerasopoulos, H. Gäggeler, P. James, T. Kentarchos, H. Kromp-Kolb, B. Krüger, C. Land, J. Meloen, A. Papayannis, A. Priller, P. Seibert, M. Sprenger, G. J. Roelofs, H. E. Scheel, C. Schnabel, P. Siegmund, L. Tobler, T. Trickl, H. Wernli, V. Wirth, P. Zanis, C. Zerefos, “Stratosphere-troposphere exchange: A review, and what we have learned from STACCATO”, J. Geophys. Res., 108, D12, 8516, doi: 10.1029/2002JD002490, 2003.

Bais, A.F., C.S. Zerefos, C. Meleti, I.C. Ziomas, K. Tourpali, "Spectral measurements of solar UVB radiation and its relations to total ozone, SO2, and clouds", J. Geophys. Res., 98, D3, 5199-5204, 1993.

Stolarski, R., R. Bojkov, L. Bishop, C. Zerefos, J. Staehelin, J. Zawodny, "Measured Trends in Stratospheric Ozone", Science, 256, 342-349, 1992.

PubMed:

PubMed Link