About the Book

This book addresses physical, chemical, and biological methods for the preservation of ancient artifacts. Advanced materials are required to preserve the Mediterranean belt's historic, artistic and archaeological relics against weathering, pollution, natural risks and anthropogenic hazards.
Based upon the 10th International Symposium on the Conservation of Monuments in the Mediterranean Basin, this book provides a forum for international engineers, architects, archaeologists, conservators, geologists, art historians and scientists in the fields of physics, chemistry and biology to discuss principles, methods, and solutions for the preservation of global historical artifacts.

About the Author: Prof. Maria Koui has been a member of the Teaching and Research Staff of National Technical University of Athens in the School of Chemical Engineering since 1987. Nowadays she is a Professor of "Spectroscopic and Non-Destructive Methods and Techniques for the Characterization of Materials" in the Materials Science and Engineering Section. She was a visiting professor at the Universities of Bari (1992), Venice (IUAV) (2005-2006) and Cranfield (2015). She has served as the Director of the Materials Science and Engineering Section at NTUA (2006-2008). She is the author and co-author of 2 European patents and has more than 130 papers published in International Scientific journals and conference proceedings. She has written 5 books concerning Advance Materials and Spectroscopic and Non Destructive Methods. She has participated in 19 National, 3 bilateral and 11 European research programs as the scientific coordinator or the main researcher. She is a member of the Materials Research Society, the International Society for Optical Engineering, the Academy of Sciences of New York, ICOMOS, the Greek Society of NDT, the Technical Camber of Greece, et al. She has founded the NDT Lab in the Chemical Engineering Department of NTUA. Her research interests include the application of Liquid Crystals mixture on metallic and non-metallic surfaces for the characterization of their microstructure.

Fulvio Zezza is Emeritus Professor of Technical and Environmental Geology at the Architecture Faculty of the University IUAV of Venice. He coordinates studies and scientific researches on: a) building materials; b) physical-mechanical properties of rocks and terrains; and c) stones decay processes. He is the co-ordinator of the International Group for the Conservation of Monuments in the Mediterranean Basin and as Scientific Editor he has published the Proceedings of the Symposia held in Bari (1989), Genève (1991), Venice (1994) and Rhodes (1997), Seville (2000), Lisbon (2004), Orléans (2007), Patras (2010) and Ankara (2014) and Athens (2017). He has a wide experience in international co-operation and collaborates in works and researches regarding archaeological sites, churches, castles and buildings. He has published scientific papers and reports regarding non destructive techniques application (digital image processing of the weathering forms and ultrasonic pulses applied to the characterization of the weathered materials) to cultural heritage: marbles of Eleusis Temple, gypsum slabs of Cnossos Palace; calcarenite building material of the ancient centres of Lindos, Ialysos and Kamiros, and that of Rhodos walls.