Dimitris Hristu-Varsakelis received his Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences and M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. Prior to that, he was at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S. EE) and U.C. Berkeley (B.Sci. EECS). 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 has been a Senior Member of the IEEE, 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. He is currently teaching courses in Applied Mathematics, Probabilistic Modeling, Operations Research and Dynamic Programming. His current research interests are in the areas of optimization, machine learning, and dynamics of socio-economic systems. He is also involved in the mentoring and advising of innovators and startup companies in related areas.