Despo C. Fatta-Kassinos is a chemical and environmental engineer, academic and author. She is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the first director of Nireas-International Water Research Center (Nireas-IWRC) at the University of Cyprus (2010–2022). She has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics. Best known for her work in wastewater treatment and reuse; Fatta-Kassinos co-edited Xenobiotics in the Urban Water Cycle: Mass Flows, Environmental Processes, Mitigation, and Treatment strategies, and also authored a children's book on water titled The Secret Handbook of the Blue Circle. Fatta-Kassinos holds an appointment as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), the SETAC Europe Council, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the CRETUS Research Center of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She had been appointed as a member of the Educational Council of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Cyprus). She is the section editor for "Water and wastewater treatment" of PLOS Water. She formerly was the Associate Editor of Water Research, has been its Editor since 2022, and previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering since its founding in 2012 until becoming its Executive Editor in September 2022. Education Fatta-Kassinos received a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece, in 1993, and completed a M.Sc. in Environmental Management and Education in 1995 from European Association of Environmental Management and Education (EAEME). She then received her Ph.D. Chemical Engineering in 1999 from NTUA. Her dissertation was titled "Development of a methodology for the estimation of the pollution level of the groundwater aquifers in the vicinity of waste disposal sites." Following this, she served as a Postdoctoral researcher for three years at NTUA between 1999 and 2003. Career Fatta-Kassinos began her academic career in 2003 as a lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cyprus, was appointed as an assistant professor in 2007, and an associate professor in 2015. Previously, she had been also an Invited Faculty Member at the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health in association with the Harvard School of Public Health from 2005 until 2009. As of 2020, she is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cyprus. Fatta-Kassinos was the