Dimitrios Hristu-Varsakelis

Biography

Dimitrios Hristu-Varsakelis received his Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences ('99) and M.S. in Applied Mathematics ('97) from the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Prior to that, he was a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S. EE '94) and at U.C. Berkeley (B.Sci. EECS '92). He joined the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1999 as a post-doctoral fellow with the Institute for Systems Research. During 2000-2005 he was a faculty member in the department of Mechanical Engineering and held a joint appointment with the Institute for Systems Research from 2002-2005. Since 2005 he is a faculty member in the Department of Applied Informatics at the University of Macedonia, in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Dr. Hristu-Varsakelis is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a member of SIAM. He is a co-recipient of the 1999 Eliahu Jury award from the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, and a co-recipient of the 2005 IFAC Young Author Prize.

Some of his research has dealt with problems of stability and optimal control in networked control systems, machine learning-based optimization and prediction, bio-inspired cooperative optimal control, and provably secure cryptographic protocols. His current interests are in the areas of optimization, machine learning, decision and control, and dynamics of socio-economic systems. He is also involved in the mentoring and advising of innovators and startup companies in related areas.