Leo J. 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.

In 1998 he joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago as the Director of the Professional Programs, a founding fellow of the Computation Institute, and associate chairman of the Department of Computer Science. 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.  Since 1998 he is working on parallel database system implementation with high-density optical storage, data modeling and data mining techniques for web-scattered knowledge and for biological databases, 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 also served in the technical committees for numerous conferences and has been a guest speaker in many of them, advised the City of Chicago on IT workforce training, and represented the interests of the technology and scientific community to the US Congress.

A community volunteer, Irakliotis is a trained emergency medical technician (paramedic grade). In addition to his service as a volunteer paramedic he has helped setup underprivileged schools with internet connectivity and computers, and run food pantries for those in need.

He is a frequent guest at local and national television and radio newscasts  and he is being quoted frequently by a number of local and national newspapers on issues related to leading edge technology, information security, and education.

He is an elected member of Sigma-Pi-Sigma and Sigma-Xi.

He lives in Oak Park with his wife Breeda and their two dogs, Lara and Obi.  He is an avid photographer and sailor, and an amateur radio operator.