PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Manolis Koubarakis

Manolis Koubarakis is a computer scientist whose AI work spans geospatial data systems and question answering. He studied mathematics at the University of Crete and computer science at the University of Toronto, completed a computer science Ph.D. in 1994, and held research and faculty posts in London, Manchester, Crete and Athens. His work includes Strabon, a semantic geospatial DBMS, ExtremeEarth’s AI technologies for Copernicus data, and a 2025 BioASQ paper that uses large language models; he became a EurAI Fellow in 2015. As of October 2026, he is a professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, leads its AI team, and serves on EurAI’s Board.

Born
1963

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 1986–1994

    Mathematics and computer science degrees

    He earns a B.Sc. in Mathematics at the University of Crete in 1986 and an M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Toronto in 1988. He completes a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1994.

  2. 1993–1998

    Research posts in London and Manchester

    From 1993 to 1995, he works as a Research Associate in the Department of Computing at Imperial College in London. In 1995, he becomes a Lecturer in the Department of Computation at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where he remains through 1998.

  3. 1999–2011

    Professorships in Crete and Athens

    He joins the Technical University of Crete’s Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering as an assistant and associate professor in 1999. In November 2005, he joins the University of Athens’ Department of Informatics and Telecommunications as an associate professor; he becomes a professor there in April 2011.

  4. 2012

    Strabon for geospatial data

    In 2012, he coauthors Strabon: A Semantic Geospatial DBMS at the 11th International Semantic Web Conference in Boston.

  5. 2015

    A EurAI fellowship

    He becomes a EurAI Fellow in 2015.

  6. 2019–2021

    ExtremeEarth and Copernicus data

    In 2021, he coauthors Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Technologies for Copernicus Data: The ExtremeEarth Project. ExtremeEarth runs from 2019 to 2021 and develops AI and big-data technologies for Copernicus data.

  7. 2025

    LLMs for biomedical question answering

    In 2025, he coauthors a BioASQ paper that uses open-source large language models as retrieval-augmented generators for biomedical question answering. The team combines model outputs by majority vote for yes-or-no questions and by answer union for list and factoid questions.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and AI team lead

    As of October 2026, he is a professor in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and leads its AI team. EurAI lists him among its current Board members.

Career

  1. Since 2005National and Kapodistrian University of AthensAssociate Professor
  2. NowEuropean Association for Artificial IntelligenceBoard Member
  3. From 1999Technical University of CreteAssistant and Associate Professor
  4. 1995–1998University of Manchester Institute of Science and TechnologyLecturer
  5. 1993–1995Imperial College LondonResearch Associate

Education

  1. 1988University of TorontoM.Sc. in Computer Science
  2. 1986University of CreteB.Sc. in Mathematics

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Imperial College London. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Koubarakis Manolis | Τμήμα Πληροφορικής και Τηλεπικοινωνιών ΕΚΠΑ di.uoa.gr. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Manolis Koubarakis - Professor of Computer Science cgi.di.uoa.gr. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Publications strabon.di.uoa.gr. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Awards | European Association for Artificial Intelligence eurai.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. ExtremeEarth earthanalytics.eu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. From Copernicus Big Data to Extreme Earth Analytics | ExtremeEarth | Project | Results | H2020 | CORDIS | European Commission cordis.europa.eu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. [2508.01480] Harnessing Collective Intelligence of LLMs for Robust Biomedical QA: A Multi-Model Approach arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. EurAI Board | European Association for Artificial Intelligence eurai.org. Checked 20 October 2026.