He received his PhD (Computes and Information Sciences) from the University of Minnesota. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida, and an affiliated faculty of Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science & Information & Engineering departments. He is the director of the Center for Applied Optimization. In addition, he is the academic advisor of the laboratory on networks and applications at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow (funded by a mega grant in 2011).Panos Pardalos is a world-renowned leader in Global Optimization, Mathematical Modeling, Energy Systems, Financial applications, and Data Sciences. He is a Fellow of AAAS, AAIA, AIMBE, EUROPT, and INFORMS and was awarded the 2013 Constantin Caratheodory Prize of the International Society of Global Optimization. In addition, Panos Pardalos has been awarded the 2013 EURO Gold Medal prize bestowed by the Association for European Operational Research Societies.