Panayiotis Smeros

Research Scientist | Human Text Generator™ (He/Him)

Hey there! Welcome to this corner of the internet where you can find a bit about me and my work.

I specialize in developing systems with societal impact within collaborative and interdisciplinary environments. I have thirteen years of experience as a research scientist in data analysis, natural language processing, machine learning, and semantic web, with applications in bioinformatics and computational subfields of sociology, journalism, and environmental science.

Professional Experience

Research Scientist

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB)

Developing methods for exploring life science data using large language models. Highlights:

  • TEXT2SPARQL Challenge Winner (ESWC'26)
  • A publication at a top-tier journal (TWEB - to appear)
  • ExpasyGPT: Natural Language Querying across Multiple Biological Databases (Open-Source Software)
  • MetaboLinkAI: Transforming Metabolomics Data into Actionable Insights (SNSF Project)
2025-

Research Scientist

University of Bern (UniBE)

Developed methods for modeling and analyzing the evolution of adolescent morality. Highlights:

2023-2025

Research Scientist

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Developed methods for combating online scientific misinformation and coordinated a team on the development of a news analytics platform. Highlights:

2016-2022

Research Scientist

University of Athens (UoA)

Developed methods for geospatial and temporal retrieval and link discovery over environmental knowledge graphs. Highlights:

  • Three publications at top-tier conferences (LDOW, ESWC, and AAAI)
  • Silk: Linked Data Integration Framework (Open-Source Software)
  • Strabon: Semantic SpatioTemporal RDF Store (Open-Source Software)
  • LEO: Linked Open Earth Observation Data for Precision Farming (CORDIS - EU Project)
  • MELODIES: Maximising the Exploitation of Linked Open Data In Enterprise & Science (CORDIS - EU Project)
  • TELEIOS: Virtual Observatory Infrastructure for Earth Observation Data (CORDIS - EU Project)
2013-2015

Education

PhD Student

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Thesis: Combating Online Scientific Misinformation
2016-2022

MSc Student

University of Athens (UoA)
Thesis: Discovering Spatial and Temporal Links among RDF Data
Supervisor: Manolis Koubarakis
2011-2014

BSc Student

University of Athens (UoA)
Thesis: Storing RDF data and evaluating SPARQL queries using MapReduce
Supervisor: Manolis Koubarakis
2007-2011

Technical Skills

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Programming Languages: Python, R, Java, Scala, C/C++, Prolog, Bash Scripting

Analytics, Statistics, Visualization: Jupyter, Tableau, Pandas, NumPy, Statsmodels, SciPy, Seaborn, Plotly, Matplotlib

Machine Learning & Natural Language Processing: PyTorch, Scikit-learn, SpaCy, NLTK, Transformers

Large Language Models: Prompt Engineering, LangChain, Hugging Face, RAG, Agentic Workflows, MCP

Big Data & Distributed Computing: Qdrant, Spark, Hadoop, Kafka, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, MySQL, CUDA, MPI

Knowledge Graphs & Ontology Engineering: NetworkX, Neo4j, RDF, OWL, SPARQL, XML, Linked Data

Crowdsourcing: MTurk, CloudResearch, Qualtrics

Other Technical Skills: FastAPI, AWS, Docker, Beautiful Soup, Unix, LaTeX

Version Control & Project Management: Git, SVN, MeisterTask, JIRA, Trello

Selected Publications

[TWEB'26 (to appear)] P. Smeros, V. Emonet, R. Wang, A.-C. Sima, T. Mendes de Farias. SPARQL-LLM: Real-Time SPARQL Query Generation from Natural Language Questions. [pdf]

[IC2S2'24] P. Smeros, A. Edelmann. MoraLLM: Morality Quantification on Interviews Using Zero-Shot Classification. [pdf]

[ICWSM'23] M. Gruppi, P. Smeros, S. Adali, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciLander: Mapping the Scientific News Landscape. [pdf, bib]

[CIKM'21] P. Smeros, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciClops: Detecting and Contextualizing Scientific Claims for Assisting Manual Fact-Checking. [pdf, slides, bib]

[VLDB'20] A. Romanou, P. Smeros, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciLens News Platform: A System for Real-Time Evaluation of News Articles. [pdf, bib]

[WWW'19] P. Smeros, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciLens: Evaluating the Quality of Scientific News Articles Using Social Media and Scientific Literature Indicators. [pdf, slides, bib]

[AAAI'17] M.A. Sherif, K. Dreßler, P. Smeros, A.-C. Ngonga Ngomo. Radon - Rapid Discovery of Topological Relations. [pdf]

[LDOW'16] P. Smeros, M. Koubarakis. Discovering Spatial and Temporal Links among RDF Data. [pdf, slides]

[ESWC'13] K. Bereta, P. Smeros, M. Koubarakis. Representing and Querying the Valid Time of Triples for Linked Geospatial Data. [pdf]

Here is the full list of my publications, and my DBLP and Google Scholar profiles.

Academic Activities

Course Instructor: Building Agentic AI Applications for Biodata Exploration (SIB, 2025-)

Teaching Assistant: Distributed Information Systems & Applied Data Analysis (EPFL, 2016-2020), Artificial Intelligence & Knowledge Technologies (UoA, 2011-2015)

Research Visitor: Data Science Group (University of Edinburgh, 2015), Agile Knowledge Engineering & Semantic Web Group (University of Leipzig, 2015), Database Architectures Group (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, 2013)

Workshop Organizer: MEDIATE ’20-’22, LinkedGeo ’15

Scientific Reviewer: ICDE ’18-’21, COLING ’20, TWEB ’20, EDBT ’17-’20, CIKM ’19, WISE ’18-’19, ESWC ’13-’19, BigData ’17-’18, ISWC ’14, JWS ’13

Conference Attendee: IC2S2 ’24, ICWSM ’22, CIKM ’21, TTO ’20-’21, VLDB ’20, TheWebConf ’16-’19, AMLD ’17-’19, ESWC ’13-’15, RR ’14, EDF ’14

Hackathon Participant: NIAID-BRCs AI Codeathon ’25-’26, BioHackathon Europe ’26

Honors & Awards

TEXT2SPARQL Challenge Winner

Second International TEXT2SPARQL Challenge (ESWC'26)
2026

Travel Grant

Swiss Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities
2024

Interview on What Is Fake News?

Scientific Podcast Series Lefteris Asks Science
2021

2-Year Funding for Project SciLens

Open Science Champion
2019

2-Year Support for Project SciLens

Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences
2019

2nd Rank in ML Text Classification

Kaggle Competition
2016

6-month fellowship

Distributed Information Systems Laboratory
2016

Other Me

  • Member of the Greek-Speaking Workers Collective of Lausanne
  • Supporter of Independent Journalists, Musicians, Directors, Comedians, and Comics Artists
  • Green Transportation Advocate (Walker & Biker)
  • Blood Donor
  • Les Mills Workouts Enthusiast
  • (Winter) Swimmer
  • Part(y)-Time DJ
  • Left-Handed Guitar Player