Dr. Panos M. Pardalos was born in Drosato (Mezilo) Argitheas in 1954 and graduated from Athens University (Department of Mathematics). He received his PhD (Computer and Information Sciences) from the University of Minnesota. He is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida, and an affiliated faculty of the Biomedical Engineering and Computer & Information Science & Engineering departments.

Dr. Pardalos is a world-renowned expert in Global Optimization, Mathematical Modeling, Energy Systems, Financial applications, and Data Sciences. He is an elected Fellow of the AAAS, AAIA, AIMBE, EUROPT, and INFORMS and was awarded the 2013 Constantin Caratheodory Prize of the International Society of Global Optimization. In addition, Dr. Pardalos was awarded the 2013 EURO Gold Medal Prize bestowed by the Association for European Operational Research Societies. This medal is the preeminent European award given to Operations Research (OR)
professionals for “scientific contributions that stand the test of time.”

Dr. Pardalos was also awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award (2018-2019). The Humboldt Research Award is granted in recognition of a researcher’s entire achievements to date – fundamental discoveries, new theories, insights that have had significant impact on their discipline.

Dr. Pardalos is a member of several Academies of Sciences, and he holds several honorary PhD degrees and affiliations. He is the Founding Editor of Optimization Letters, Energy Systems, and Co-Founder of the International Journal of Global Optimization, Computational Management Science, and Springer Nature Operations Research Forum. He has published over 500 journal papers, and edited/authored over 200 books. He is one of the most cited authors and has graduated 70 PhD students.

Dr. Panos M. Pardalos has lectured and given invited keynote
addresses worldwide in countries including Austria, Australia,
Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Egypt, England, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Singapore, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and the USA.​