Despo C. Fatta-Kassinos is a chemical and environmental engineer, academic and author. She is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the first director of Nireas-International Water Research Center (Nireas-IWRC) at the University of Cyprus (2010–2022). She has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics.
Best known for her work in wastewater treatment and reuse; Fatta-Kassinos co-edited Xenobiotics in the Urban Water Cycle: Mass Flows, Environmental Processes, Mitigation, and Treatment strategies, and also authored a childrens book on water titled The Secret Handbook of the Blue Circle'.
Fatta-Kassinos holds an appointment as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), the SETAC Europe Council, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the CRETUS Research Center of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She had been appointed as a member of the Educational Council of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Cyprus). She is the section editor for "Water and wastewater treatment" of PLOS Water. She formerly was an Associate Editor and since 2022 an Editor of Water Research, and previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering since its founding in 2012 until becoming an Executive Editor in September 2022. In 2014, she became a founding member of International Ph.D. School on Advanced Oxidation Processes, member of the Scientific and Management Committee.