Athena Vakali

Athena Vakali is a Professor at the School of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where she leads the Laboratory on Data and Web Science (Datalab). Her distinguished career encompasses coordination of over 25 research projects under EU frameworks (FP7, H2020) and national programs, alongside leadership roles including Director of the Graduate Program in Informatics (2014-2015) and membership in the EU Future Internet Assembly Steering Committee (2012-2014).

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD in Informatics from Aristotle University
• MSc in Computer Science from Purdue University, USA
• BSc in Mathematics

Professor Vakali's research focuses on Data Science with emphasis on big data mining and analytics, next-generation Internet applications, online social networks mining, and data management across cloud, edge, and decentralized environments. Her scholarly output exceeds 160 refereed publications with over 8,060 citations and an h-index of 37, reflecting significant impact in her fields.

She has received recognition for educational and research excellence, particularly in mentoring and student empowerment through ACM and ACM-W initiatives.

Professor Vakali has supervised 10 completed PhD theses and actively mentors students through ACM chapters she helped establish. Her research leadership spans major EU projects and conference organization, including PC co-chair roles for ACM/IEEE Web Intelligence 2019 and WISE 2014.

As head of Datalab, she directs cutting-edge research in data-intensive systems and web science, fostering innovation in distributed data management and social network analysis.