Dimitris Achlioptas is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California Santa Cruz. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1999. Prior to joining UCSC he was with Microsoft Research, Redmond. His research interest is in exploring the use of random structures both as aids and as obstacles to efficient computation. He has received an NSF CAREER award, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and an ERC Starting Grant.