Dr. Panayiotou graduated in 1991 from New College of the University of South Florida with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and Sociology. She earned a Masters degree in 1994 and a Ph.D. in 1998 from Purdue University in Indiana, USA in Clinical Psychology. She completed her clinical internship at McLean Hospital of Harvard Medical School. She worked as assistant professor at Mississippi State University before her return to Cyprus. She has been at the Department of Psychology of the University of Cyprus since 2001. Her research interests are in the domain of Emotion and its role in the etiology and maintenance of psychopathology. She studies topics like differences in fear reactivity between groups with different pathologies, emotion regulation and coping. She directs the Clinical Psychology and Psychophysiology Lab and she is a founding member of the Center for Applied Neuroscience. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in Cyprus. As of May 2016 she is the Chair of the Department of Psychology.

Psychophysiology of Emotion and Cognition, Emotional and Cognitive processes in psychopathology, Anxiety and Affective Disorders Emotional processes in antisocial behaviors such a risky driving and childhood aggression