Christakis Mina is a PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Urban Management at Kyoto University, Japan. He obtained the Diploma of Technician Civil Engineer of the Higher Technical Institute of Cyprus in 1992 and then continued his studies at the University of Texas at Austin, USA where he received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1996. Following his graduation he worked as a Civil Engineer in multinational engineering firms in USA and Europe until 2004 when he received the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Government Scholarship to study at Kyoto University. He received his M.Sc. in Engineering from the Department of Urban Management of Kyoto University in 2007. His Master’s Thesis dealt with the evaluation of cost risk of contaminated land using a methodology based on Bayesian Neural Networks. During his Master’s studies he was directly involved in the creation of a Natural Hazards Risk Identification and Mitigation tool (MIRISK) for the World Bank. In April 2007, after successfully meeting the requirements, he entered the Ph.D. program of Kyoto University where he currently researches the Economics of Free/Open Source Software Development. Mr. Mina is a registered professional Civil Engineer in Cyprus and active member of the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber and the Japan Society of Civil Engineers.

More about Christakis including his research, publications and participated projects can be found at his personal home page.