Mr. Orestis Kairis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, specializing in Soil Mapping and Assessment. His main teaching and research areas focus on the pedological mapping of soils, the investigation of synergies between digital mapping of surface soil properties and conventional soil mapping, the assessment of agricultural suitability of soils, and the evaluation of major soil degradations that, in their extreme expression, may lead to land desertification.
He has significant experience in field soil mapping and the preparation of soil studies, in qualitative and semi-quantitative assessment of the suitability of agricultural soils for crop establishment, in assessing soil erosion risk using experimental setups or simulation models, and in evaluating the environmental sensitivity of lands to desertification using complex and simple indicators. He has participated as an agronomist-agricultural engineer or as a Dr. soil scientist-researcher in the execution of more than 30 European or Greek State-funded research projects of the Agricultural University of Athens and other educational and research institutions. He has served as the scientific responsible for 2 research projects and as the deputy scientific responsible for 3 research projects. He is a co-author of 18 articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals (Scopus Elsevier h index 12, citations 675), one book chapter from an international publishing house, and one scientific treatise published by the Academy of Athens. He has been a member of the National Committee for Combating Desertification, which was established in June 2021.