School of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace
Dr. Despina A. Gkika
Caught by the Cost of Chemistry
Shaping sustainable chemistry through economics: Chemistry is the application. Sustainability, circularity and safety are the challenges. Economics is the analytical lens.
During my research, it became clear that economics is embedded in almost every chemical choice. The material selected, the synthesis route followed, the level of safety built into a process, the treatment strategy adopted, the characterisation methods used, and the way performance is evaluated all carry economic consequences. From this realisation grew a lasting interest in the interface between economics and chemistry, particularly in how one pathway is chosen over another, how cost relates to technical performance, and how sustainability, safety, circularity, and environmental impact shape the value and viability of a chemical technology. This multidisciplinary lens has become central to the work. Chemical technologies cannot be judged by chemistry alone; their development is shaped by trade-offs among performance, cost, resource use, safety, environmental consequences, and uncertainty.
About
Dr. Despina A. Gkika is an economist specializing in innovative, interdisciplinary systems that promote sustainable interactions between the environment, technology, and the economy. She graduated from the Department of Business Economics at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom and received her PhD with a thesis titled "The cost profile of nanomaterials" from the University of Antwerp in Belgium in 2021.
She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Democritus University of Thrace. Her research occupies a unique position at the crossroads of economics, chemical technologies, and sustainability science. Her approach includes the economic and sustainability assessment of green/environmental technologies, as well as the interaction between economics, technology, and ecology with applications in green chemistry and the chemical industry.
She conducts foundational strategic research by tackling methodological knowledge gaps in quantitative sustainability assessments—such as life cycle costing and techno-economic analysis—for emerging technologies at early development stages (low TRL). In addition, to address the complex global challenges of sustainable development, its research is applied through the interdisciplinary science of systems, decision-making theory, and economic modeling, with the aim of developing reliable models of human decision-making processes over time and under conditions of uncertainty, in order to understand the determinants of the overall economic value of public goods and services.
It incorporates methods from economic valuation and sustainability using techno-economic assessment (TEA), cost-benefit analysis (CBA), dose-response modeling, and life cycle cost (LCC) analysis, strategic frameworks such as the principles of the circular economy and, for financial analysis, activity-based costing (ABC method).
Academic milestones
Education and research appointments.
Education
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2021
PhD in Applied Economics
University of Antwerp, Belgium
Cost profile of nanomaterials
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Earlier
Business Economics
University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Experience
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2026–present
Assistant Professor
Democritus University of Thrace
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2023–2026
Research Assistant
Democritus University of Thrace
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2022–2023
Postdoctoral Researcher
International Hellenic University
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2015–2021
Scientific Researcher
International Hellenic University