On Saturday 17 May, the ENVMS Group AUTh welcomed students, educators and members of the public to its laboratories at KEDEK, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki’s Balkan Center, for a hands-on open day organised within the framework of the SPECTRA project.
Visitors had the opportunity to explore how modern analytical chemistry contributes to some of the most pressing challenges in environmental and public health research. Through live demonstrations and direct conversations with researchers, they discovered how techniques including mass spectrometry, AI-assisted data analysis and automated environmental monitoring systems are applied in real research workflows to investigate water quality, food safety and emerging contaminants including nanoplastics.
The event was open to the public from age 13 and ran from 10:00 to 17:00. Across the day, participants could explore four areas of the team’s work: advanced analytical techniques for detecting pollutants in environmental samples; mass spectrometry and AI tools for verifying food origin and quality; methods for isolating and characterising nanoplastics in water and food; and live demonstrations of automated environmental monitoring systems.
The ENVMS team, Prof. Dimitra Lambropoulou, Dr Vasileios Alampanos, Lida Koronaiou and Periklis Parthenidis, reported a highly engaged audience and a rewarding day of scientific exchange with visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
