I grew up in Trikala, a city in the region of Thessaly in central Greece. I studied at the National Technical University of Athens and graduated with a Diploma (MEng equivalent) in Electrical Engineering. I subsequently obtained a scholarship from the Greek Scholarship Foundation and did the MSc in Computer Science at University College London (UCL).

Subsequently, while working towards my PhD, I worked as Research Fellow in European and UK research projects. Between 1989 and 1992 I contributed in a major fashion to the research/design and I was the major developer behind the OSIMIS platform, which was subsequently used in a many research projects and served as the basis for a number of commercial products, including those of companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard. From October 1992 I was a Senior Research Fellow, being involved in teaching and student supervision activities. I led UCL's participation in European projects, initiated a number of industrial collaborations with company research laboratories and was the driving force behind the UCL Communications Management Research Group. In 1996 I became a Senior Lecturer. In January 1998 I joined the Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Surrey as full professor, holding the Chair of Communication and Information Systems. I stayed at Surrey for exactly 10 years, leading the activities of the Networks Research Group in the Institute of Communication Systems. In January 2008 I returned back to UCL but this time in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, holding the Chair of Communication Networks.

I am part of the Information and Communication Enginerring Group in which I lead networks and services research activities. I manage participation in a number of research projects, supervise PhD students and MSc/undergraduate student projects and teach at both undergraduate and MSc levels. I am also the department's Affiliate Tutor.

Apart from communications engineering, I am interested in cultural, sports and other activities. These include music - I have a large rock/jazz/classical/ethnic record collection, cinema, travelling, off-road motorbiking and trekking. I tend to spend my holidays in Elati, the Aegean islands and especially the island of Chios and the area of Ardeche in south France. I have travelled with my motorbike in all Europe and in parts of Africa and Asia, having done once the Silk Road until Kyrgyzstan.