During her scientific career, Professor Maria Kanakidou’s research focused on the understanding of interactions between atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemical cycles and climate and of their changes due to human activities since the preindustrial period and in the future. She has done a number of important changes in the scientific approach (experimental vs modelling) and scientific topics (i. volatile organics and oxidants gas phase tropospheric chemistry, ii. organic aerosols and climate, iii. biogeochemical cycles, nutrients deposition) and she performed a number of innovative studies that have fostered further research by the scientific community. 

During her PhD thesis, she has performed the first global estimate of the marine source of light volatile organic compounds in the international literature (Bonsang et al., 1988). Since then several studies are being performed to identify the variety of organics emitted from the sea as well as the intensity of this natural source.

Bonsang B., Kanakidou M., Lambert G., and Monfray P, The marine source of C2-C6 aliphatic hydrocarbons.  J. Atm. Chem., 6, 3-20, 1988.

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During the same period, based on differences in hydrocarbon’s reactivity has shown experimental indirect evidence of the existence of high levels of hydroxyl (OH) radicals, the most important tropospheric oxidant during daytime, in the absence of light (Bonsang et al., 1987). Although that decade the night time presence of OH radicals was questioned, the recent development of analytical techniques has enabled the measurement of nighttime levels of these radicals.

Bonsang B., Kanakidou M., and Lambert G, Non methane hydrocarbons chemistry in the atmosphere of an equatorial forest: a case of indirect photochemical production of OH radicals. Geophys. Res. Lett., 88, 1250-1253, 1987.

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During her post doc in Mainz, she has been converted to a global chemistry-transport modeller and performed the first global 2-dimensional modelling study of light volatile organics in literature that led to the first model estimate of their sources (Kanakidou et al., 1991 and several publications co-authored with H. Singh et al. ) and demonstrated the great importance of acetone and organic nitrates demonstrating for atmospheric chemistry.

Kanakidou M., H.B. Singh, K.M. Valentin, and P.J. Crutzen, A 2-D study of ethane and propane oxidation in the troposphere,  J. Geophys. Res., 96, 15,395-15,413, 1991

These studies have been shortly after followed by 3-dimensional studies, including the one demonstrating the impact of the observed large oxygenated gaseous organics on oxidants and organic nitrates in the free and upper troposphere by Singh et al. in 1995 that received the Julian Allen award in 1998 and initiated numerous studies that confirm the presence of large amounts of oxygenated organics in the atmosphere and support their importance.

Singh H.B., M. Kanakidou, P.J. Crutzen and D. Jacob, High concentrations and photochemical fate of carbonyls and alcohols in the global troposphere, Nature, 378, 50-54, 1995

In parallel, she performed the first 3-d global modeling study of halogenated hydrocarbons, proposed that time to substitute the halocarbons that are aggressive for stratospheric ozone and she evaluated their lifetimes and simulated the atmospheric levels of these compounds and their oxidation products potentially harmful for ecosystems. 

(Kanakidou M., F.J. Dentener, P.J. Crutzen, A Global three-dimensional study of the fate of HCFCs and HFC-134a in the troposphere, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 18781-18802, 1995)

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She wrote a very comprehensive paper on the impact of non-methane hydrocarbons on tropospheric chemistry based on one of the first 3-d global modeling studies of these compounds performed with her PhD student N. Poisson (Poisson et al., 2000). She also performed the first global modeling study of light organic acids in the troposphere and by comparison with observations in the marine environment she has shown the existence of a significant marine source for these acids (Baboukas et al., 2000).

Poisson N., Kanakidou M. and P. J. Crutzen, Impact of Non Methane Hydrocarbons on tropospheric chemistry and particular the oxidizing power of the global troposphere: 3-Dimensional Modelling results, J. Atmos. Chem., 36, 157-230, 2000.

Baboukas E. D., Kanakidou M., and Mihalopoulos N., Carboxylic acids in gas and particulate phase above the Atlantic Ocean , J. Geophys. Res., 105, 14459-14472, 2000

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In Crete, Prof. Maria Kanakidou also studied the photochemistry in the east Mediterranean, one of the most active areas of photochemical ozone production in a global perspective with high aerosol load and affected by surrounding megacities and pollution centers (Kanakidou et al., 2011; Im and Kanakidou, 2012 and references therein). Based on modeling of the first long term nitrate radical observations performed by her PhD student M. Vrekoussis in the marine boundary layer, she has shown the importance of nighttime chemistry for nutrient formation and deposition in the area (Vrekoussis et al., 2004; 2006).

Kanakidou M., et al. Megacities as hot spots of air pollution in the East Mediterranean, Atmospheric Environment, 45, 1223-1235, 2011

Im, U. and Kanakidou, M.: Impacts of East Mediterranean megacity emissions on air quality, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 6335-6355, 2012

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Maria Kanakidou is mostly known for her global modeling studies on organic aerosols in the atmosphere, her research on the secondary organic aerosol formation, the factors that control their past and future variability, and the climatic impact of aerosols. She is the lead author of a highly cited review paper on organic aerosols and global climate modeling (Kanakidou et al., 2005) and she has recently contributed to several review papers on organic aerosols (Fuzzi et al., 2006) and atmospheric chemistry (Monks et al., 2010).

Kanakidou, M., et al. Organic aerosol and global climate modelling: A review, Atmos. Chem. Phys. , 5, 1053-1123, 2005. 

Monks P., …., M. Kanakidou, et al. Atmospheric composition change – global and regional air quality, Atmospheric Environment, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.08.021

S. Fuzzi, … , M. Kanakidou, …, Critical assessment of the current state of scientific knowledge, terminology, and research needs concerning the role of organic aerosols in the atmosphere, climate, and global change, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 2017–2038, 2006,

She performed, together with her PhD students, the first 3-d global modeling studies of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and of the factors that control their variability (Tsigaridis & Kanakidou, 2003, 2007; Tsigaridis et al, 2005), the first demonstration of the importance of anthropogenic emissions in biogenic SOA formation (Kanakidou et al., 2000), the first 3-d global modeling of organic ligand formation in atmospheric water (Myriokefalitakis et al., 2011).

Kanakidou M., K. Tsigaridis, F. J. Dentener and P.J. Crutzen, Human activity enhances the formation of organic aerosols by biogenic hydrocarbon oxidation, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 9243-9254, 2000.

Tsigaridis K., Kanakidou M., Global modelling of secondary organic aerosol in the troposphere: A sensitivity analysis, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 1849-1869, 2003.  

Tsigaridis K., and M., Kanakidou, Secondary organic aerosol importance in the future atmosphere, Atmos. Environ, 41, 4682–4692, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.03.045, 2007.

Myriokefalitakis, S., Tsigaridis, K., Mihalopoulos, N., Sciare, J., Nenes, A., Kawamura, K., Segers, A., and Kanakidou, M.:  In-cloud oxalate formation in the global troposphere: a 3-D modeling study, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 5761–5782, 2011

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Her research on biogeochemical cycles focuses on the nutrient N, P and Fe cycles, how they are interconnected via atmospheric organic chemistry and atmospheric deposition and what is the impact of this deposition to the marine environment.  She has performed the first global modeling of organic phosphorus atmospheric cycle and deposition together with organic nitrogen and organic carbon species (Kanakidou et al., 2012).

Kanakidou, M., Duce, R.A., Prospero, et al. 2012. Atmospheric fluxes of organic N and P to the global ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 10.10.1029/2011GB004277

During her scientific career, she has coordinated two major international intercomparison exercises of global 3-dimensional chemistry transport tropospheric models: In 1997 (as co-convenor of GIM) the first with regard to ozone and carbon monoxide tropospheric simulations that largely contributed to the improvement of the models that were at that moment in their infancy and leaded to two publications that inspired recent model intercomparisons and have been reported in IPCC 2001 (Kanakidou et al., 1999; Ehhalt et al., 2001).

M. Kanakidou, F.J. Dentener, G.P. Brasseur,T.K. et al. , 3-D global simulations of tropospheric CO distributions - results of the GIM/IGAC intercomparison 1997 exercise, Chemosphere: Global Change Science, 1, 263-282, 1999.

M. Kanakidou, F.J. Dentener, G. P. Brasseur, et al., 1998. 3-D Global Simulations of Tropospheric Chemistry with focus on Ozone Distributions - Results of the GIM/IGAC Intercomparison 1997 Exercise, report to the EU, 18842, December 1998.

Ehhalt D., …, M Kanakidou, et al., Atmospheric chemistry and greenhouse gases, Chapter 4 of the IPCC Third Assessment Report Climate Change 2001, Group 1: The Scientific Basis, 2001.

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In 2012 (together with her former PhD student Dr. K. Tsigaridis) she initiated the first organic aerosols intercomparison excerise (first results published in Tsigaridis et al 2014) that has identified major uncertainties in the natural sources as well as in the semi-volatile character of the organic aerosols, findings that foster ongoing research.

Tsigaridis K., N. Daskalakis, M. Kanakidou, et al., The AeroCom evaluation and intercomparison of organic aerosol in global models, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2014, 14, pp. 10845-10895