Phokion Kolaitis is a Professor of Computer Science at UC Santa Cruz and a Research Staff Member of the Computer Science Principles and Methodologies Department (a.k.a. the Theory Group) at the IBM Almaden Research Center. From July 1997 to June 2001, he served as Chair of the Computer Science Department at UC Santa Cruz. From June 2004 to September 2008, he served as Senior Manager of the Computer Science Principles and Methodologies Department at the IBM Almaden Research Center (and while on leave of absence from UC Santa Cruz). His research interests include principles of database systems, logic in computer science, and computational complexity.
Kolaitis is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) , a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, and the recipient of a 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship. He is also the recipient of an IBM Research Division Outstanding Innovation Award, an IBM Research Division Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, and a co-winner of the 2008 ACM PODS Alberto O. Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award.