Leo J. Irakliotis is currently Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences at Nova Southeastern University.

Irakliotis earned a M.S. degree in Physics from Miami University and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Colorado State University.  In 1997 he joined MCI Telecommunications where he worked as an executive engineer in research and development for high-performance networking.  During his tenure at MCI he was a visiting professor of computer science at the Illinois Institute of Technology and a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago.

From 1997 until 2009 he was a member of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago where he served as the Director of the Professional Programs, a founding fellow of the Computation Institute, and associate chairman. At the University of Chicago he led a highly successful and innovative program for graduate and professional education in computer science.  He was responsible for bulding partnerships and alliances with key industry leaders, the city of Chicago, and major employers through out the country.  His research focuses on parallel database system implementation with high-density optical storage, data modeling and data mining techniques for high-frequency data, medical informatics, and technology and public policy issues.

Irakliotis’ career highlights include a guest editorship of Computer, the preeminent journal of computing, and the founding chairmanship and editorship of two major international conferences: Photonics in Computing in 1994 and 1995, and Critical Technologies for the Future of Computing in 2001.  He has served in the technical committees for conferences and in editorial boards for journals in the field of information technology and processing. As a consultant he advised the City of Chicago on IT workforce training, worked with option traders to improve technology education, participated as an expert in patent litigation, counseled proprietary education groups, and represented the interests of the technology and scientific community to the US Congress as a member of the Science Visit Days.

Leo Irakliotis is an elected member of Sigma-Pi-Sigma and Sigma-Xi.

He divides his time between Fort Lauderdale in Florida and Oak Park in Illinois where he lives with his wife Breeda and their two dogs, Lara and Obi.  He is an avid photographer, diver, and sailor, and an amateur radio operator.