I studied Electrical Engineering at NTUA from 1979 to 1984. I was very fortunate to be a student during that period, as a new era was beginning to unfold and there was a pervasive sense of enthusiasm for the future. I was also very fortunate to belong to an exceptional cohort of students, both in terms of quality and camaraderie. Due to a serious injury, I was unable to attend my first year. When I finally managed to join, I found tremendous support and assistance from both my fellow students and my professors, for which I will always be profoundly grateful. Being able to move around, attend classes, and socialise with my classmates gave me confidence and hope.

I have many fond memories of my student years and our very close-knit, decidedly “nerdy” group of friends. We spent countless hours studying in the old library, where we systematically buried “time capsules” with notes in random volumes, while concocting amusing pranks in the mechanical engineering drawing laboratory. We organised impromptu dance lessons and invented hilarious choreographies on the famous double marble staircase of NTUA’s main building in the centre of Athens. On that magical staircase we also held our serious discussions and heated debates, guiding and steering ourselves towards adulthood. We were the first year to attend some courses at the new Polytechnic campus at Zografou, which, although unfinished at the time (in some rooms there were not even doors or windows), offered us a new, modernised teaching environment that seemed impressive to us.

I was fortunate to be taught by professors who truly inspired me! They instilled in me the desire for research and the pursuit of an academic career. They warmly encouraged me to follow my passion for mathematics rather than become an engineer. They taught me that knowledge and research have “fluid, flexible, and exciting boundaries,” as Professor Protonotarios often used to say. With their support and guidance, I managed to go to the United States for graduate studies, to obtain a doctorate in Applied Mathematics, and subsequently to work in the then new field of Mathematical Finance.

So… in the end I did not become an electrical engineer! NTUA gave me the education, the confidence, the support, and the opportunity to pursue my dream — for all of this I am immensely grateful!

To all my professors, a heartfelt “thank you”!