Educated at MIT and at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in naval architecture, Professor Chryssostomidis was appointed to the MIT faculty in 1970 and became a full professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering in 1982. That same year he was appointed director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program where in 1989 he established the MIT Sea Grant Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Laboratory to develop technology and systems for advanced autonomous surface and underwater vehicles. Professor Chryssostomidis has also been director of the MIT Ocean Engineering Department Design Laboratory since its inception in the early 1970s. From 1994 to 2002, he served as Department Head of the department of Ocean Engineering where he established the Ocean Engineering Teaching Laboratory. In recognition of his dedication and excellence in teaching, he was awarded the Teaching Innovation Professorship for the MIT School of Engineering which he held from 1991 to 1993.
In 2003, with MIT Sea Grant staff, he created the Sea Perch Program, funded by the Office of Naval Research. The Sea Perch program trains educators across the United States and around the world to build a simple, remotely operated underwater vehicle, or ROV, made from PVC pipe and other inexpensive, easily available materials. Professor Chryssostomidis has supervised a number of undergraduates and graduate students at MIT who have held and continue to hold key positions in academia, industry and Government.
In 1994, he was elected as Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineering. His over 100 publications display his wide range of interests, including design methodology for ships, vortex-induced response of flexible cylinders, underwater vehicle design, design issues in advanced shipbuilding, including the all-electric ship and T-Craft. He receives research support from the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Naval Sea Systems Command, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in addition to industry support. Professor Chryssostomidis also has an extensive consulting record. He has served on several National Research Council committees, most recently the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council committee for the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future. His most recent projects include the design of a new, all-electric, destroyer-class ship for the U.S. surface Navy; designing a system for wireless recharging of vessels and instruments in the open ocean; and numerical modeling and graphic depiction of coastal inundation events.