Nikolaos Samaras

Nikolaos Samaras is a Full Professor at the Department of Applied Informatics, School of Information Sciences, University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece. He has been serving as director of the Computational Methodologies & Operations Research (CMOR) Laboratory since April 2016. His academic career includes positions as Assistant Professor (2007-2012) and Lecturer (2003-2007) at the same institution, and earlier as an adjacent Lecturer at the Technological Institute of Western Macedonia (1998-2000).

Dr. Samaras earned his Diploma in Applied Informatics from the University of Macedonia in 1996 and his Ph.D. in Applied Informatics from the same university in 2001. His educational background forms the foundation for his extensive research in computational optimization and operations research.

Professor Samaras's research focuses on the interface between computer science and operations research, with particular expertise in linear and nonlinear optimization, network optimization, integer optimization, and scientific computing including HPC and GPU programming. His work has resulted in the development of new algorithmic families for optimization problems, efficient GPU implementations of the revised simplex algorithm, and novel algorithms and software for operations research. His research spans theoretical algorithm development, practical implementation, and real-world applications across various engineering and scientific domains.

His extensive publication record includes over 35 journal papers in prestigious venues such as Computers and Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, and Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, more than 85 conference papers, and four textbooks (two in English and two in Greek). His work has been recognized through citations and the Thomson ISI/ASIS&T Citation Analysis Research Grant in 2005.

• ACM Senior Member (2016)
• Thomson ISI/ASIS&T Citation Analysis Research Grant (2005)
• Editorial board member of Operations Research: An International Journal
• Reviewer for numerous top journals including Mathematical Programming Computation and European Journal of Operational Research

Professor Samaras has supervised four current Ph.D. students working on hybrid simplex algorithms, large-scale optimization using Apache Hadoop, algorithmic procedures in matrix theory, and smoothed complexity analysis. He has successfully guided five Ph.D. students to completion, including Nikolaos Ploskas who won the 2014 HELORS Doctoral Dissertation Award. Additionally, he has supervised 45 master's theses and 84 bachelor's theses. His research group has secured funding from diverse sources including the European Union, Greek Secretariat of Research and Technology, and industry partners like Veltio Greece LTD.

The Computational Methodologies & Operations Research (CMOR) Laboratory, which he directs, focuses on developing and implementing optimization algorithms with applications in transportation, energy systems, and business process design. The lab has produced notable software tools including Euclides and Visual LinProg, which have educational applications in linear programming.