CARE-C celebrates recent PhD Graduates
During the second half of 2025 and beginning of 2026, The Cyprus Institute’s Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C), successfully awarded 4 PhDs through its competitive doctoral program in Energy, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences. CARE-C extends warm congratulations to Dr. Alkistis Papetta, Dr. Mohsen Doust Mohammadi, Dr. Giandomenico Vurro and Dr. Christos Xenofontos for having successfully defending their doctoral thesis at The Cyprus Institute’s Graduate School.
During their studies at The Cyprus Institute, the researchers focused on a range of subjects relating to pertinent challenges in climate and atmospheric science. Dr. Papetta focused her work on utilising ground sensing and UAV technologies to observe mineral dust. Dr. Mohammadi centred his research on the deeper understanding of aerosol clusters and the development of reliable models for atmospheric and materials-related applications. Dr. Vurro expanded his work around the assessment of the effectiveness of urban heat adaptation strategies, by combining urban climate modelling and epidemiological analysis. Finally, Dr. Xenofontos, investigated how anthropogenic ammonia, primarily emitted from agriculture, influences particle formation and aerosol processes in the upper troposphere.
Following the successful defend of their thesis, the recent graduates shared different perspectives on how the supportive international and interdisciplinary environment of the CyI, supported them in successfully completing their studies and developing as researchers. Mohsen highlighted that his work at The Cyprus Institute provided him with a better understanding of how fundamental theoretical tools can be applied to real-world problems in atmospheric science and advanced material. Alkistis remarked on the opportunity she had to closely collaborate across multiple modelling and observational communities. Giandomenico reflected on how he was able to closely collaborate with supervisors and colleagues, which enriched his experience at CARE-C. Christos emphasised the importance of being able to bridge laboratory experiments, observations, and global modelling to tackle complex climate questions.
In terms of next steps after graduation, Dr. Papetta remains at CARE-C as part of the Upper Air Aerosol Observations group, and Dr. Mohammadi is joining the Computation-based Science and Technology Research Centre (CaSToRC) of The Cyprus Institute. Dr. Xenofontos, plans to continue his work in atmospheric science, focusing on aerosol–cloud–climate interactions, while Dr. Vurro, will be advancing his work as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering at The Bartlett – University College London.
CARE-C would like to express its warmest congratulations to the four graduates and wishes them every success in their future endeavours.
More information about the CyI PhD programmes on the CyI website.
