Keynotes
Vassilis Christophides
University of Crete
Vassilis Christophides is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Crete and affiliated researcher at the Information Systems and Software Technology Laboratory of the Institute of Computer Science Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH-ICS). He studied Electrical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece, July 1988, he received his DEA in computer science from the University PARIS VI, June 1992 and his Ph.D. from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers (CNAM) of Paris, France, October 1996. His main research interests include:
- Databases and Web Information Systems: XML/RDF Storage and Indexing Schemes, Semantics-aware Data Models and Query Languages, Heterogeneous Information Integration, Change Management, Graphical Query Interfaces.
- Digital Libraries: Personalization and Preference Management, Peer-to-Peer Data and Knowledge Management Systems, Publish/Subscribe Systems, Graph Mining and Power Laws.
- Scientific Systems: Workflow Management Systems, Description and Composition of e-services, Data Provenance and Annotation Management.
He has extensive experience in the scientific coordination of research projects at the Institute of Computer Science at FORTH. He participates in the recent Integrated Project DIACHRON aiming to propose flexible frameworks for preserving linked data. He has published over 120 articles in high-quality international conferences, workshops and journals. He has received the 2004 SIGMOD Test of Time Award and the Best Paper Award at the 2nd and 6th International Semantic Web Conference in 2003 & 2007. He will be the General Chair of the upcoming join EDBT/ICDT Conference in 2014 at Athens.
Stefan Decker
National University of Ireland
Prof Stefan Decker is a full professor at the National University of Ireland and the director of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) in Galway. Prof Decker obtained in 1995 a masters in Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern (awarded with distinction). From 1995 to 1999 he worked towards a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at the University of Karlsruhe (awarded 2002 with distinction). From 1999-2002 he worked as a Postdoc and Research Associate at the Computer Science Department of Stanford University and established one of the first Semantic Web research groups. From July 2002 to July 2005, he worked as a Computer Scientist and Research Assistant Professor at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California, USA. In October 2003 Prof Decker moved to Ireland to help to set up a new Research Institute concerned with the Semantic Web. Since July 2006 Prof Decker is full professor and director of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute. His current research interests include the Semantic Web, metadata, ontologies and semi-structured data, web services, and applications for Digital Libraries, Knowledge Management, Information Integration and Peer-to-Peer technology. He published around 80 papers as books and journal, book, conference, and workshop contributions. He co-organized around 35 scientific workshops and conferences and has edited several special issues of scientific journals. He was editor-in-chief of Elsevier's Journal of Web Semantics, editoral committee member of the Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence (ETAI) (the Semantic Web), the Journal on Internet Research and the Journal on Web Intelligence and Agent Systems (WIAS) and is recognized as one of the most widely cited Semantic Web scientists. His dissertation work was quoted as one of the inspirations for the DARPA DAML program, which span the Semantic Web effort.
Kieron O'Hara
University of Southampton
Kieron O'Hara is a senior research fellow in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. His interests are in the philosophy, sociology and politics of technology, particularly the World Wide Web and the Semantic Web; key themes are trust, transparency, privacy and the use of technology to support human memory. He has had a central involvement in the development of the discipline of Web Science. He is the author of several books, including: 'Plato and the Internet' (2002); 'Trust: From Socrates to Spin' (2004); 'inequality.com: Power, Poverty and the Digital Divide' (2006, with David Stevens); and 'The Spy in the Coffee Machine: The End of Privacy As We Know It' (2008, with Nigel Shadbolt), as well as 'A Framework for Web Science' (2006, with Tim Berners-Lee et al), for the journal 'Foundations and Trends in Web Science'. He has also written extensively on British politics and political theory, and is a research fellow for the Centre for Policy Studies, and a research fellow with CONCEPT: the Nottingham Centre for Normative Political Theory. He writes frequently for popular journals and newspapers, has appeared several times on radio and television, and regularly blogs for the Centre for Policy Studies. His latest book is 'Huxley: A Beginner's Guide' (2012), and he is currently engaged in writing about online religious extremism. He chairs the transparency sector panel for crime and criminal justice for the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office. His report on privacy in the context of the UK government's transparency programme, 'Transparent Government, Not Transparent Citizens', was published in September 2011.
Steffen Staab
University of Koblenz-Landau
Steffen Staab is professor for databases and information systems at the University of Koblenz-Landau and director of the institute for Web Science and Technologies (WeST) and the institute for Computer Science.
His interests lie in researching core technology for ontologies and semantic web as well as in applied research for exploiting these technologies for knowledge management, multimedia and software technology. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Web Semantics and Department Editor for "Semantic Web" in the IEEE Intelligent Systems.
In 1999, Steffen has co-founded Ontoprise, a worldwide leading company in the field of ontology technologies.
