It was 2 November 1970 when I walked into an enormous lecture theatre for my first class at NTUA in Athens. It was the Chemistry course shared by many Departments. An intimidating moment, made even more difficult when the professor asked the first student from each Department to recite their grades in all six national entrance examination subjects. My voice barely came out when I spoke. An unforgettable beginning to five years of exceptional learning.

We were the second cohort of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. There were as yet no professors. Our first departmental course took place in 1972. What a refreshing change — from lectures of 200 students to a department of 12 outstanding students, any of whom could have been admitted to any department at NTUA among the top candidates.

We quickly formed a group and friendships that lasted a lifetime, inspired by our first professor, Ted Loukakis, with his straightforward, grounded, hardworking American style. He rolled up his sleeves and “ploughed” the Department to bring it to life: introducing new courses, recruiting two more faculty members — Antoniou and Ioannidis — and building the infrastructure from scratch. No textbooks, no laboratories; and yet, a learning environment that was genuinely inspiring. It was cut short by the events of 17 November 1973. Our collective spirit prevailed. We supported the struggle and at the same time managed to collaborate with our three professors and reach the finish line on schedule.

I left for MIT on a full research scholarship to work in Offshore Engineering with yet another outstanding Greek professor, Chrysostomidis. In 1979 I joined the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan, rose through the ranks, became Department Chair (1994–2003) and led the department through a period of survival when equivalent departments across the United States were forced to merge with larger ones. I was honoured by SNAME with the Blakely Smith Medal for outstanding achievements in Offshore Engineering, and was elected a Life Fellow of both SNAME and ASME. The University of Michigan honoured me with an Endowed Chair.

I subsequently reinvented myself, focusing on marine renewable energy sources. I designed the VIVACE converter and was awarded 11 patents in the United States and the European Union. It is an environmentally compatible technology based on fluid-mechanical instabilities that mimics the dynamics of fish without the complexity of their kinematics. It has been cited approximately 7,000 times, as the understanding of the complex underlying physics and its commercial application are being studied worldwide.
It is an honour to be counted among the distinguished alumni of my beloved institution, NTUA.