Stefanos D. Koundouras is Professor of Viticulture and Director of the Viticulture Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is a graduate of the Department of Agriculture (Plant Production) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and holds a Diploma in Oenology (D.N.O.), a Postgraduate Diploma and a PhD in Viticulture from the Victor Segalen University Bordeaux II (France). He has served as President and Vice President of the Department of Agriculture and a member of the Senate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 2017 to 2024. He has published 70 papers in international journals as well as numerous articles in conference proceedings and popular articles in journals of the wine industry. For the last 3 years, he has been included in the Stanford University list of the top 2% of scientists in the world in his scientific field.

He has served for more than 10 years as secretary of the expert group “Innovations in viticultural techniques” of the Viticulture Commission of the International Organization of Vine and Wine (O.I.V.). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Society of Horticultural Science, a member of the editorial board (associate editor) of the international scientific journal OEno-One (ISSN 2494-1271) and a founding member of the International Viticulture and Enology Society.

He has given numerous speeches as an invited speaker at foreign universities, international and national conferences and events in the wine industry. In the context of his research activity, he participated (often as a coordinator) in more than 20 competitive projects with industry, while he was the coordinator of the emblematic action of the General Secretariat of the Greek Academy of Sciences “The Roads of the Vineyards” where 12 leading universities and research institutions of Greece and more than 200 researchers participated. In 2019, he organized the international viticulture conference GiESCO 2019 in Thessaloniki. He also works as a viticulture consultant for leading wine companies in Greece and Cyprus for more than 20 years.