Maria Paravatou received her BSc in biology from the department of Mathematical Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1978), her MSc in Genetics (1982) and her PhD (1984) degrees from the University of Paris VII, Jussieu.

Presently she is a senior researcher in the field or Radiobiology at the National Centre of Scientific Research “Demokritos”, (NCSR “D”). She has worked as a Post-doctoral fellow (1984) in Radiobiology at the Institut Curie, Section Biologie, Laboratoire du CNRS URA 620, Structure et Μutagenèse Chromosomique, Paris, France, and from 1993 to 1997, as an associated researcher in Human Genetics, at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Facoltà di Medicina, Istituto di Genetica Medica, Roma, Italia.

Her research interests have been mainly focused in: (1) the study of chromosomal aberrations induced by ionizing radiation, found in human pathology or in the evolution of the primates (2) human genetic studies (3) toxicological studies on biological systems of environmental or synthetic chemicals, and biological studies on new drugs and nanopartical.and (4) the radiosensitivity induced by various drugs in biological systems

She is lecturing from 2012 at the Inter-University post-graduate course in “Medical Physics – Radiophysics” the course “Biology” and, from 2010 at the Dpt. οf Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Applications of Biology in Health in the course “Ionizing radiation and health”