Elias Samankassou studied geology and paleontology at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany. After a postdoctoral position at the same university, he joined the Department of Geosciences at the University of Fribourg, where he earned his habilitation (venia legendi). In 2017, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. One year later, he became a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Geneva.

Elias Samankassou is internationally recognized as an expert in comparative carbonate sedimentology and paleoclimate reconstruction. He has conducted studies on reefs in various modern environments, including the Florida Bay and the Bahamas, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Maldives, and French Polynesia, as well as on fossil reefs and carbonate platforms. His research spans a wide range of time intervals and topics aimed at reconstructing and quantifying past global changes on the millennial scale. He uses carbonate sedimentology, petrography, and geochemistry to address scientific questions. One of his current projects focuses on reconstructing Holocene climate changes using the geochemistry of coral skeletons, with particular attention to coral bleaching. Another project aims to reconstruct seawater composition based on non-traditional isotopes, using marine carbonate cements dated via U-Pb isotopes.

Elias Samankassou was appointed Associate Professor on April 1, 2025.