Through my studies at the Polytechnic I was fortunate to meet people — professors and fellow students — who inspired me, through their words and thoughts, but above all through their example.

They showed me the way, and offered catalytic directions that shaped my subsequent engagement with the university, with research, and with industry and entrepreneurship — always keeping in mind activities that provide personal fulfilment while also helping to make the world a better and more sustainable place.

Starting from NTUA, I had the good fortune to work in many countries, across four continents, and in environments very different from one another and very different from the Polytechnic. Yet, like Metsovion, they all had one thing in common: an understanding of the critical role that the engineering profession plays in society, and of the importance — and consequently the difficulty — of providing a proper engineering education, both for those who learn and for those who teach.

We face infinite challenges ahead — environmental, social, and economic — and I firmly believe that the Polytechnic, on all fronts, must play and indeed does play a central role.

In particular, for the new students who are now beginning their journey as engineers, the message must be: hard work and perseverance, but also imagination, creativity, and inventiveness. Engineers — unique among the natural sciences — create things that did not exist before.

In the Greece of 2025, and given the way in which international geopolitics, economics, and society are evolving, this role is of paramount importance and irreplaceable.