Panagiotis Michailaris was born at Mitylene in 1948. He graduated the Philosophical School of the University of Athens, department of History and Archaeology, where he also supported his doctoral thesis in 1994. Between the years 1976-1978 he was a scholar of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and post-byzantine Studies of Venice. Since 1979 he has worked at the Institute for Neohellenic Research of National Hellenic Research Foundation (INR/NHRF) as a research worker, since 1990 as a research associate, since 1995 as a research assistant professor, since 1998 as a research associate professor. Since 2003 he has been working at INR/NHRF as a research professor. He participated in the transcription and editing of the Gennadius Library's ''Archive of Ali Pascha'' (directed by Vassilis Panayotopoulos), as well as in the publication of the catalogue including the subscribers of Greek books printed in the years of the Neohellenic Enlightenment, from 1749 to 1821 (directed by Ph. Iliou). Since 1983 he has been working as a member of the research program ''Institutions and Ideology in the Neohellenic Society, 15th-19th century'' (directed by D. G. Apostolopoulos). He has presented communications at congresses, he has taken part to scientific expeditions, he has published books and articles in scientific journals and in collective volumes concerning the issues mentioned above, as well as subjects of the history of Greeks in regions under Venetian rule and the history of Lesbos. He is a member of scientific societies and of the editorial board of the journal Ho Heranistes, published by the Greek Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Since 2003 he has been a member of the Hellenic Open University.