Editiorial staff

Spase Shumka MSc in Ecology & taxonomy and PhD Ecology, University of Tirana, Albania is a lecturer of Biology, Molecular biology and Hydrobiology at the Agricultural University of Tirana. His research is situated in the field of conservation biology, aquatic ecology, wetland and protected area management, surveys and monitoring of plankton and fish, species and habitats conservation and management. He is focused on international cooperation, academic entrepreneurship and collaborative R&D in aquatic ecology and molecular approaches. He holds a full professor position and within last two decades he is (co‐) author of 95 journal papers and 85 publications in international conference proceedings partly indexed by the Web of Science Core Collection. Prof. Shumka is a member of editorial boards of two International journals (HAE-Croatia and JIEAS-Turkey), while was participating in 30 different international projects and numerous consultancy within various international bodies as KfW, GIZ, UNDP, UNIDO, ERM, RSK, etc.

EVAN RROÇO is working since 1990 at the Agricultural University of Tirana, Department of Agronomy. Between 1995 and 1999 he completed his doctoral studies near the University Justus Liebig in Giessen (Germany) evaluated with “Magna Cum Laude”.

He has published different books and monographies as well as many research articles in different journals and has presented the results of his research in more than 60 international meetings.

Prof. Rroço is member of editorial board in four research journals. For six years he has served as member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Agronomy, most cited journal in the field of agronomy. Last year he was member of the Scientific Committee of the Congress of the European Society for Agronomy

He has contributed in the reformation of the Higher Education in Albania as a member of the Council of Higher Education and Science, Member of the Exert Group for Higher Education of the TEMPUS Program, Contact Point of the Marie Curie Project under the framework of FP7 and lastly member of the Working Group for the Reformation of the Low for Research in Albania.

Xhelil Koleci is a senior lector of epidemiology of animal infectious disease, including zoonosis, emergent and transboundary animal Disease. His research work is focused on both endemic and emergent disease particularly zoonotic disease in Albania; disease modelling; role of host defence mechanisms; improving the current diagnostic methods and assessing disease control strategies; mayor vector born disease and Emergent and Trans-boundary Animal Disease. He is author and co-author of more than 65 publications in national and international journals and coordination/participation in about 13 national and international research projects; HORIZON 2020, COST, FAO, EuFMD, INTEREG etc. He has authored university textbooks, several research papers, production manuals and brochures regarding infectious disease. He is involved in delivering trainings to veterinarians in framework of EU projects and Veterinary Continue Education. He has been invited as speaker from Veterinary order of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo.  He is member of Biology, Agriculture and Veterinary of Albania Academic Science. He is member of Editorial Board of Veterinary Evidence Journal and German Journal of Veterinary Research.

Fang Wang, Ph.D., is a principal investigator at the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which is the top research center for soil science in China. She was appointed full professor at the Institute in 2014, holding the “Soil Environmental Chemistry” chair, with the aim to unravel the mechanisms of soil pollution and developing remediation technique with the focus on persistent organic pollutants and emerging contaminants, especially for antibiotics and resistance genes in soil environment. She has worked in the German Research Center for Environmental Health and Munich Technique University for more than two years and in Prof. James M. Tiedje’s lab in Michigan State University for more than one year. She was awarded the “Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow for Experienced Researchers” from the Humboldt Foundation, Germany; the “Young Talent of Science and Technology” and the “333 High Level Talent” of Jiangsu Province, China; the “Distinguished Young Scholars” from Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China; a membership of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and a “Young Talent of Lu Jia-Xi” Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She serves as an Associate Editor of the Science of the Total Environment and an Academic Editor of The Innovation. She is a Executive Council member of the Soil Science Society of Jiangsu Province, China, and serves as Chair of the International Collaboration Committee and as Vice Chair of the Soil Chemistry committee of Soil Science Society of China and on the Scientific Committee member of The Catalan Institute for Water Research, Spain. She has published more than 100 SCI papers in the international journals of Environ Sci Technol and Soil Biol Biochem, etc.

Guillaume Echevarria is full professor at Université de Lorraine (Nancy, France) in soil biogeochemistry and is associated to INRAE. He has recognised expertise in the field of metal biogeochemistry in soils, metal hyperaccumulation in the soil-plant system and agronomic applications of nickel phytomining and agromining. He authored more than 134 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and edited three books including the recent second version of a condensed milestone monograph “Agromining: Farming for metals”. He has an h-index of 32 with over 3000 citations. He is currently ‘Honorary Professor’ at the Sustainable Mining Institute of the University of Queensland and has coordinated two European Research Projects in the past 5 years on nickel agromining (LIFE and FACCE-JPI programmes). Prof. Echevarria has also created with several colleagues a spin-off company from Université de Lorraine, ECONICK, to develop commercial agromining in 2016. This company is now the leader in Europe in the implementation of metal agromining with hyperaccumulator plants with operations in France, Greece and Albania.

Elteva Muça actually is lecturer of Sustainable Rural Development at Agricultural University of Tirana, Faculty of Agribusiness and Department of Economy and Rural Development Economies. She has more than twenty years involved in different activities and research studies in different sectors of the economy including the fields of rural development, environmental economics, and regional development. Being a graduated as agricultural economist, and specialized in sustainable Agriculture she has demonstrated her competency in these fields not only as University lecturer, but also as researcher. She is author and cooauthor in more than 50 scientific papers. Etleva has been working on local, regional and national level as key expert for several national and international Organizations such as FAO, USAID, GIZ, IDM, VIS Albania etc. Also she was part of group experts in assisting LAG-LEADER simulations projects in Albania.

Theocharis Tsoutsos is Professor at the School of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece. Since 2005 he is Founder and Director, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Lab (ReSEL). He has been Director Graduate Programme “Environmental Engineering” (2014-2018) and Coordinator of the TUC-Energy Group (2013-2017).
Since 1999 he has been adjunct Associate Professor in Technical University of Crete), Heriot-Watt, University of Western Attica, Kingston University, UK Open University, Greek Open University. During the period 1992-2005 he became head, of the Development Dept in the Greek Centre for Renewable Energy Sources & Energy Saving (CRES).

He has studied Chemical Engineering (National Technical University of Athens – NTUA,1984); Economist (National & Kapodistrian University of Athens – NKUA-, Law School,1990) and got his PhD from National Technical University of Athens (1990)

He is actually Member of the Management Council (RMEI -réseau méditerranéen des ecoles d’ingénieurs et de management, 2018-) and of Steering Committee RHC (European Technology Platform – Renewable Heating -Cooling, 2018-)

Professor Tsoutsos has coordinated more than 40 research projects on Sustainable Development, Energy and Mobility and participated in more than 100 totally funded by FP5, FP6, FP7, H2020, IEE, THERMIE, MED, INTERREG, COST, Jean Monnet.
He is author of more than 100 publications in international scientific peer-reviewed journals, 20 book chapters, 200 conference. He has achieved 4,900+ citations (Scholar) with h-factor:30 (Scopus) and 35 (Scholar).  He is Member of the Editorial Board in the following scientific peer-review journals: Sustainable City and Society (Elsevier); Energy Efficiency (SpringerNature); Energies (mdpi); Int. J. Sustainable Built Environment (Elsevier), AIMS Energy, Current Sust./Ren. Energy Reports (Springer Nature), Inventions (mdpi), Green Energy and Sustainability (Pivot Science Publication Corp).

During the last 20 years he hase been project evaluator in REA, INEA, European Research Council, Erasmus-Mundus (EC); General Secretary of R & T, State Scholarship Foundation (GR); Research Promotion Foundation (CY); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); Russian Research Foundation, Ministry of Education & Science of the Russian Federation (RU); Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NL); Welsh Government (UK).

Kozma Naka graduated from the Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania, in 1984 with a B.S. in Forest Engineering. He received an M.S. degree in Computer-Science from the University of Tirana in 1986 and a Ph. D. degree in Forestry and Forest Products from Virginia Tech in 1998. Dr. Naka is currently an Associate Professor of Forest Operations at Alabama A&M University and the Coordinator of the Forestry, Ecology, and Wildlife Program. He teaches Forest Mensuration, Forest Operations, Wood Products, and Forestry Field Techniques. His research includes forest operations, forest disturbances, hardwood management, and agroforestry. He is a member of the Society of American Foresters, Forest Products Society, Alabama Forestry Council, and Alabama Forestry Association. Dr. Naka resides in Huntsville, Alabama with his wife, a social worker, and an Alabama A&M graduate. They have two adult children.

Professor at the Department of Forestry for 27 years and in 2016 was elected to the position of the Head of the Department of Forestry. He was Dean of the Faculty for 8 years in the period 2008-2016. He was graduated as “Forestry Engineer” at the Agricultural University of Tirana, Faculty of Forestry Sciences in 1986. After graduation he worked for 4 years at the Forest Exploitation Enterprise in Puka, 2 years as forestry specialist at the General Directorate of Forests and Pastures, at the Ministry of Agriculture and 1.5 years specialist at the Forestry and Pasture Research Institute in Tirana. He has completed his doctoral studies at Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany in 2000. He holds the Professor title since 2011 and teaches several modules: Basics of Silviculture & Special Silviculture (BSc), Forest History (MSc) and Monography of Forest Species (PhD). The research activity is related to the field of silviculture and sustainable management of natural resources, forest history and forestry science, as well as the silvicultural evaluation of forest species, which are expressed in the scientific leadership of over 50 BSc diploma thesis, 20 in MSc level and 5 doctoral thesis. He has carried out a number of specializations in many European countries (Germany, Italy, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Hungary) in the field of silviculture and Natural Resources Management. He has published 6 scientific monographs, 2 of which in Germany and has participated in more than 50 national & international scientific conferences. Has published over 30 scientific articles in well-known scientific journals inside and out-side the country and has more than 500 international citations (Publish or Perish 5). He has also participated and conducted 3 national projects and 6 international projects (DAAD, TEMPUS, IPA, FAO, etc.) and has developed some expertises in the field of silviculture. He is member of the IUFRO International Council since 2014.

Università di Bologna
Brunella Morandi is associate Professor and tree ecophysiology lecturer at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Bologna. She currently coordinates the Master Degree in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies at the same university. PhD in fruit orchard management (since 2006) and M. Sci. in Agricultural Sciences and technologies (since 2002), she is author of more than 50 publications in international referenced journals (Scopus) and of more than 40 in professional journals.   Chair of the EUFRIN Working Group on “Water Relations and Irrigation” and member of the EIP-Agri Focus Group on “Water & Agriculture”. Her research focuses on the plant-environment relationships, focusing on crops such as cherry, kiwifruit, apple, peach and pear, with the aim to develop new strategies to improve water use efficiency, while maintaining production quality and yields, in conditions of water scarcity and climate change.

Nazim Gruda is a Professor and Senior Lecturer at the University of Bonn, Germany. He has been working as a successful researcher, research advisor, project expert and evaluator, reviewer, member of editorial boards and scholar for more than three decades. Professor Gruda is an internationally-recognized authority in the field of horticulture. In his research work, he has focused on the scientific understanding and application of innovative and sustainable horticulture with a specialization in vegetable sciences. Professor Gruda has achieved an impressive track record of publications (250+), citations and research funding and can look back on many years of successful teaching at the different well-known European universities. He is, also, professor at the Agricultural University of Tirana and member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania.

Neslihan Balkis-Ozdelice is a Professor in Hydrobiology Division of Biology Department at Istanbul University. She obtained her BSC degree in Istanbul University and attended to Istanbul University, Institute of Sciences, Hydrobiology program for her PhD. She worked as the head of the Department of Biology at the same University for 3 years. Beside her intensive research career authoring more than 50 publications and She worked as a project manager in more than 30 national and international projects. Her main research areas include the taxonomy, diversity, culture and ecology of marine phytoplankton, water quality and dinoflagellate cysts in the sediment.

Erjon Mamoçi is a lecturer of two modules, “General Microbiology” (Bachelor) and “Food Protection” (Master of Science). He works as a consultant in the sector of agro inputs, principally with biostimulants and fertilizers with low environmental impact. He is author of different publications and has participated in different projects. His main research interests are plant extracts, essential oils and natural compounds in agriculture and food sector. Mr. Mamoçi research topics include isolation, identification post-harvest fungal pathogens and the use of natural compounds as antimicrobials for food borne pathogens, plant pathogenic insects, nematodes and antioxidant properties. Research finding from his work have been published in different scientific papers and conferences.

Dr. Mohammed Wasim Siddiqui is an Assistant Professor and Scientist in the Department of Food Science and Post-Harvest Technology, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, India and author or co-author of more than >50 journal articles, >50 book chapters, and several conference papers. He has >25 books to his credit published by Elsevier, USA, CRC Press, USA, Springer, USA, & Apple Academic Press, USA. He is the Founder Editor-in-Chief of two book series entitled “Postharvest Biology and Technology” and “Innovations in Horticultural Science” being published from Apple Academic Press, New Jersey, USA, where he is a Senior Acquisitions Editor for Horticultural Science as well. He also established an international peer reviewed journal “Journal of Postharvest Technology.” Dr Siddiqui has been serving as an editorial board member and active reviewer of several international journals including Horticulture Research (Nature Publishing Group), Postharvest Biology and Technology (Elsevier), PLoS ONE, (PLOS), LWT- Food Science and Technology (Elsevier), Food Science and Nutrition (Wiley), Journal of Plant Growth Regulation (Springer), Acta Physiologiae Plantarum (Springer), Journal of Food Science and Technology (Springer), Indian Journal of Agricultural Science (ICAR) as so on. Dr Siddiqui is one of key members in establishing the WORLD FOOD PRESERVATION CENTER (WFPC), LLC, USA. Presently, he is an AMBASSADOR of WFPC, LLC, USA. He also served the Postharvest Education Foundation, USA as Member of Board of Directors for the year 2019-2020. Dr Siddiqui has received numerous awards and fellowships in recognition of research and teaching achievements. Recently, he is conferred with the Glory of India Award-2017, Best Researcher Award-2016, Best Citizens of India Award-2016, Bharat Jyoti Award-2016, Outstanding Researcher Award-2016, Best Young Researcher Award – 2015, Young Scientist Award- 2015, and the Young Achiever Award- 2014 for the outstanding contribution in research and teaching from several organizations of national and international repute. He was also awarded Maulana Azad National Fellowship Award from the University Grants Commission, New-Delhi, India. He is an Honorary Board Member and Life Time Author Society for Advancement of Human and Nature (SADHNA), Nauni, Himachal Pradesh, India. He has been an active member of organising committee of several national and international seminars/conferences/summits. He has received several grants from various funding agencies to carry out his research projects. He is dynamically indulged in teaching (graduate and doctorate students) and research, and he has proved himself as an active scientist in the area of Postharvest Biotechnology.

More than 20 years of professional experience in water chemistry and water quality monitoring.
During the activity at the Institute for Sanitary Engineering and Water Pollution Control at the
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) expert knowledge in the
field of water and environmental chemistry could be collected. The long experience in research
work could be combined with practical applications and different issues concerning water quality
in drinking, ground, surface and wastewater. The combination of chemical knowledge with a
variety of environmental queries, leads to a special expertise regarding water quality management
and environmental issues. Combination of professional and social experience in Albania and Austria and management of
national and international research projects at BOKU for more than 20 years lead to high level of
expertise and social skills in managing intercultural team work.
Special fields of experience:
• Analytical chemistry, water chemistry and analysis, development and validation of
analytical methods for specific water contaminants.
• Conventional and in-situ quality monitoring of drinking water, groundwater, surface
water and wastewater.
• Evaluation on novel technologies regarding water purification efficiency.
• Emerging substances in water – their monitoring and removal strategies.
• Long experience on laboratory organisation, including quality assurance and
accreditation procedure.
• Management of national and international research projects.
• Experience on training courses for capacity building in Georgia, Albania and Austria.

Sokrat Sinaj studied agriculture at the National Institute of Agriculture in Tirana. After competing his PhD thesis at the Department of Agriculture and Food Science of the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (INPL) in Nancy, France, he spent two years as post-doctorate fellow at the Scientific National Centre of Research (CNRS) in Nancy, France. He became then Ass. Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland (ETHZ) for 12 years before joining the Swiss National Institute for Agriculture (Agroscope) on September 2007. In 2005, he obtained the title “University Professor” from French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research and the title “Professor” according to the legislation of the Republic of Albania. He has coordinated various international research projects, published more than 200 articles (H Index 34, GS) in international scientific journals and supervised over 50 postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Research has focused on nutrient cycling and productivity in cropping and grassland. As the team leader, develop, lead and conduct process-oriented research at scales ranging from soil particles to the field and farms, to understand drivers controlling nutrient fluxes in order to propose and develop integrated nutrient management models that will contribute to the sustainability of ecologically efficient agricultural systems. He is member of scientific committees for several international scientific journals.