I had a great teacher in junior high school, a man of utmost ethos and integrity with a great passion for mathematics and science, who taught with rigour, austerity and love at the same time. Through him I grew a like and a passion for mathematics.
Your organization field and mission
The National Technical University of Athens is the top ranking higher education institution in Greece. It is structured according to the continental European system for training engineers, with an emphasis on solid background. The duration of courses leading, after the acquisition of 300 credit units to a Diploma, of Master’s level, is five years. The valuable work of NTUA and its international reputation are due to its well-organised educational andresearch system, the quality of its staff and students, and the adequacy of its technical infrastructure. NTUA graduates were pivotal to Greece’s pre-war development and to post-war reconstruction. The graduate engineers who staffed public and private technical services and companies were and remain by general consent, equal to their European counterparts. Many have been elected to distinguished teaching and research positions in well-known universities all over the world.
Under Article 16 of the Greek Constitution and consequent laws, and in accordance with its tradition and structure, the primary institutional component of the NTUA’s mission, effected through the integrated complex of studies and research, is to provide advanced higher education of outstanding quality in science andtechnology. For this purpose, NTUA operates as a State University with nine Schools, self-administered by the Senate, the Rector, the Vice-Rectors, the School Presidents, representatives of the academic staff and students from every School, as well as representatives from other university bodies.
Please tell us briefly about your role in the company / at your organization
I am a Professor in Mathematics specializing in Knot Theory, Low-Dimensional Topology and Applications. I teach Linear Algebra and Analytic Geometry; Algebra (groups, rings, fields); and Knot Theory, Low-Dimensional Topology and Applications undergraduate and postgraduate.
Your interest in STEM
My first role model was Madame Curie, then Michalis Manzaris, the mathematician I described above. While doing my PhD, my role model was the great man and mathematician Vaughan Jones, who had received the Fields Medal for his discoveries.
Your studies
At the time there was too much discrimination against women in the mentality of the Greek society, even from university professors who were about 94% of the total faculty. Some men, like my math teacher and my father encouraged me in pursuing maths. My family was strongly supporting success in school and in university studies. The greatest opportunity was to be able to go abroad (Warwick U) for postgraduate studies. The main threat was the time I was loosing in analyzing bad behavious toward me.
Do not hesitate, go for it. Mathematics is a great, deeply satisfactory area of Science.
You at work
For example: Young Minds NTUA section with the Committee for Gender Equality have organized journees on Women in Science; An initiative of employees in NTUA library have organized podcasts projecting some women faculty.
I have been nominated to represent Greece in the project Women of Mathematics throughout Europe, so my portrait and interview figures in the exhibition and catalogue. I am mostly proud of my PhD students, especially for initiating female students into research and academic career.
Your point of view
Technology can empower everyone. Women can profit from searching about women in STEM, accessing information and projecting themselves in academic positions, conference participation, grants, etc.
Things have largely changed by now, women colleagues are welcome and appreciated. Do not forget to always be serious and professional.
To have more representation of women in higher ranks of academic positions as well as in administration (deans, vice-rectors, rectors).
To finish with
Integrity, academic ethos, equal opportunities, unbiased and impartial faculty decisions independent of politics.
To establish more my research area in Greece; to proceed with the (my) initiative to found the Hellenic Center of Mathematical Sciences.
By 2030 I will be approaching retirement. I expect my career to have grown regarding the research projects I am involved.
The current activity has been implemented in the framework of the Project: Code4Europe,
GA Number: 101158834. Official project website : https://codeweek.eu/