Dr Stella Tsani is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, with expertise in energy and natural resource economics, sustainable development, and economic policy, applying systems-based and quantitative approaches to sustainability transitions. She is the 2025 EUSEW Women in Energy Award winner, recognized by the European Commission for her outstanding contributions to Europe’s energy transition.

Dr Tsani is highly active at the science-policy interface, contributing to major international assessment and advisory processes. She serves as a member of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) representing the Western European and Others (WEOG) Group. She is a Lead Author of UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7), the United Nations’ flagship environmental assessment, contributing to pathways for economic and financial transformation toward sustainability. She contributes as Lead Author to the 8th edition of the UNESCO Science Report, UNESCO’s leading global assessment of science, technology, and innovation systems and their role in sustainable development. She has supported the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as an expert contributor to the IPCC 7th Assessment Report scoping process and as a reviewer for the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere. She is the Scientific Lead of the Resilience Economics and Sustainable Transitions  International Centre of Excellence of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Programme (International Science Council/United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction/China Association for Science and Technology) and a contributor to the International Energy Agency (IEA)  report on Clean Energy Innovation Policies in Emerging and Developing Economies.

Dr. Tsani is an elected member of the InterAcademy Partnership Policy Advisory Committee, a Young Academies Science Advice Structure (YASAS) delegate, and an expert member of the International Science Council Initiative on Science Advice for Public Policy in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region. In 2022, she became the first scholar based in Greece to join the Global Young Academy, where she coordinates activities on sustainable development, foresight, and innovation.  She is a member of the Young Academy of Europe.  

Her expert service includes advisory and governance roles with the European Commission (Cohesion for Transitions (C4T) Community of Practice, Just Transition Platform) Water4All (SRIA update), UNEP/Mediterranean Action Plan Working Group on Ocean Economy and Sustainable Finance, MED2050 foresight group, Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Institutes of Economic Sciences Board of Directors, ORCID Researcher Advisory Council, International Science Council water expert delegate to the UN Water conference, European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Body of Knowledge expert and start-up mentor. She is a Smithsonian Science Education Center Scientist Ambassador for the  Network for Emergent Socio-Scientific Thinking (NESST) and has supported the development of the “Ocean” youth guide.

Dr. Tsani has coordinated, advised, or contributed to over 40 international research projects (EU, UNEP, EEA, World Bank, Bank of Greece) and serves as an expert evaluator for major funding agencies such as the Norwegian Research Council, Kazakhstan National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation,  French National Research Agency, and the Onassis Foundation.

Her interdisciplinary research applies economic modelling, systems thinking, and scenario analysis to sustainability, energy transitions, and natural resource governance, particularly water, hydrocarbons, and renewables, with publications in leading journals such as Energy Economics, Resources Policy, Environmental Science & Policy, and Economic Modelling. She has extensive professional experience with multi-sectoral networks across the knowledge triangle.

She leads GY-Energy, a youth and early-career initiative on energy awareness and participation, and is a member of STEM Women Global and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Curriculum Vitae