Panos Y. Papalambros is the Donald C. Graham Professor of Engineering and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He is also Professor of Architecture and Professor of Art and Design. He teaches in the field of design. He is currently serving as Executive Director, Michigan Interdisciplinary and Professional Engineering.

Born in Patras, Greece, he attended the National Technical University of Athens (Ethnikon Metsovion Polytechnion) and earned a diploma in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering in 1974. Moving to California he attended Stanford University and earned his M.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) in 1976 and Ph.D. degree (Design Division, Mechanical Engineering) in 1979. At Michigan he has served as a faculty member since 1979. 

During his tenure at Michigan he served as department chair (1992-98 and 2007-2008) and was the founding director of several laboratories and centers: The Optimal Design (ODE) Laboratory (1980 -); the Design Laboratory (1990-92); the Ford Durability Simulation Center (1992-94); the Automotive Research Center (1994-2003); the General Motors Collaborative Research Laboratory (1998-2002); the Antilium Project (2003-2006); and the Ford BlockM Sustainability Laboratory (2006-2009).  In 2006 he became the founding chair of the University of Michigan interdisciplinary Design Science Doctoral Program. His research interests include design science and optimization, with applications to product design and development, automotive systems, such as hybrid and electric vehicles, architectural design, and design of large complex engineered systems. With D. J. Wilde, he co-authored the textbook Principles of Optimal Design: Modeling and Computation (1988, 2000). He has published over 300 articles in journals, conference proceedings, and books.  

He is a member of ASME, INFORMS, MPS, SME, SAE, ISSMO, AIAA, AAUP, ASEE,and the Design Society, and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Design and Manufacturing, Engineering Design, Engineering Optimization, Computer- Integrated Engineering, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, and the Journal of Engineering Simulation. He has also served the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, the Journal of Global Optimization, and the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers International Journal. He is currently serving as Chief Editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design..

He is a Fellow of ASME and SAE, and the recipient of the ASME Design Automation Award (1998), ASME Machine Design Award (1999), and JSME Design and Systems Achievement Award (2004), and the ASME Joel and Ruth Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award (2007). Since 2000, he holds the Donald C. Graham Endowed Chair in Engineering, and in 2009 he received the Stephen S. Attwood Award, the highest honor in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan.