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Interview Aristidis Economopou Interview FFN#39 Aristidis P. Economopoulos Professor emeritus, Department of Biology, Elementary school at the village and University of Crete, Greece the city of Hania , high school in Athens, Biographical abstract, based on an interview ques- university at the Highest Agricultural tionnaire issued by the editors of FFN School of Athens ( now Agricultural Uni- versity), then 26 months in the army, and finally a PhD from the University of Califor- nia at Berkeley, 1967-1970. Research at “Demokritos” National Research Center in Athens, 1965-1967 and 1970-1985, at IAEA Seibersdorf Laboratory ,Vienna, Aus- tria, 1985-1990, and at the University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, 1991- 2006 . Since then emeritus professor of the same uni- Aris (Fall 2019) versity. Most of my research was with the Fruit Flies of Economic Importance and in particular with the olive fruit fly and the Mediterranean fruit fly. During my Berke- orn just before the Second World War in B ley days : Vietnam War, Mario Savio Free Northern Greece. With the outbreak of the war my Speech Movement, Ernesto Che Guevara, father, an army officer, was transferred to the fron- Black Panthers, and The Children of Pirae- tiers while my mother with my older brother and us by Manos Hatzidakis, a concert by Mikis myself moved to a village of Western Crete , 30 km Theodorakis, Joan Baez and Neil Am- southeast of Hania, capital city of Crete at that time. strong’s Moon Walk as well. It was the native village of my mother where my My first contact with insects was in my grandfather was the village orthodox priest and Cretan village mentioned above, named possessed a house and fields with olive trees and Fres, where I was annoyed by mosqui- vineyards. My first memories start from this village, toes, certain parts of Crete had malaria at when at the age of 2 years and 3 months, May that time, houseflies and wasps, while as 1941, with opened-wide eyes and ears I was watch- all kids I had fun playing around with soil ing and hearing from a hill together with other vil- beetles and torturing cicadas. In the same lage children the uproar of over a thousand Ger- period I witnessed for the first time the man war planes bombarding first and dropping application of modern insecticides for thousands of parachutists thereafter over the Hania mass extinction of insects. It was during and its airport areas. The village was occupied and the first post war years when the whole we were chased from our house which became the coastal plain of Hania, cities and villages German commander headquarters. included, was sprayed by airplanes with December 2019 1 Interview FFN#39 DDT against mosquitoes for malaria control. I came back to take the insecticide and the bus will never forget that not only mosquitoes but to the village they almost killed me because houseflies and different other insect species all nobody could stand the foul smell. Of course disappeared for a long time. It was the begin- the chemical effect to the insects was worse. ning of “Silent Spring”. Recently I have discov- Following university and the Greek army I ered an issue of the most prestigious Greek was exploring the possibility for work at a newspaper “Kathimerini”, which means “Daily”, research laboratory as junior research assis- th of 28 June 1950. It houses a big advertise for tant and eventually follow graduate studies. DDT with an emphatic note : “ It kills every- It was then when a new Laboratory had been thing”. My second contact with insect mass kill- operated at the “Demokritos” Nuclear Cen- ing was during the last two summers of my uni- ter, headed by Dr. Minos Tzanakakis an ento- versity studies. At that time every summer from mologist with PhD from Berkeley. The labora- May/June till September/October, the Greek tory was partly financed by USDA to work on Ministry of Agriculture was organizing area- olive fly control with SIT to reduce or elimi- wide aerial or ground cover or bait spraying nate massive insecticidal spraying over vast with organophosphorous insecticides over the areas which had led to extended environ- olive tree belt of Greece, i.e. the southern half mental pollution and frequent toxic residues of the country, to control the olive fruit fly. Alt- into table olives and oil. I discussed my par- hough farmers were paying part of the expense ticipation with Tzanakakis who, following ex- in olive oil at the oil mill, the control operation amination of my previous activities and cur- was a kind of subsidy for the olive belt poor riculum in entomology, hired me as research farmers. Advanced students of the Greek agri- assistant making clear at the same time that cultural universities were hired during these pe- a PhD from a prestigious Department of En- riods to run the spraying campaign over areas of tomology would be a prerequisite for further about 10 villages each, i.e. up to half a million career at “Demokritos”. The same was made olive trees. Among other side effects of the area clear by the scientific director of -wide spraying was the heavy olive tree infesta- “Demokritos” at that time, a prominent phys- tion with black fungus due to mass extinction of icist Themistoklis Kanellopoulos. This led to parasitoids killing the scale insects which were successful exams with the Greek State Schol- producing honey-due on which the devastating arships Foundation and eventually graduate fungus was developing. A funny event hap- studies at Berkeley. Tzanakakis guided me to pened in my first year of participation in this quality entomological research and success- olive fly control campaign. I had taken from the ful career and I consider him as my basic sci- central stores of the anti-olive fly operation in entific mentor. At Berkeley I was fortunate to the city of Hania a package of a “fenthion” for- be student and collaborate with excellent mulation which was foul smelling. I left the pack scientists in Entomology. Among the many, at a coffee shop from where the bus to the cen- Harold Gordon and John Casida, the first su- tral village of my area started its trip. When I December 2019 2 Interview FFN#39 pervised my thesis on chemosterilands and dis- ry of “Demokritos” , with 7 PhDs, each one cussed and guided me in my graduate research leading his own project section, and one steps while the second was an excellent friend and BSc and about 15 technical personnel with research consultant and instructor. I consider both its basic mandate been to apply SIT against of them important guides and mentors for my sub- the olive fly. This was the main effort for sequent entomological career. the decade of 1970-1982. Based on a ra- The sterility technique to eradicate or manage ther effective artificial rearing, though ex- destructive populations of insect species affecting pensive, and γ-ray sterilization developed agricultural produce and human health is a bril- by Tzanakakis and his colleagues Economo- liant control strategy of no environmental contam- poulos and Tsitsipis (alphabetically) in the ination. Nevertheless it is a much demanding first years of the laboratory, 1963-1967, methodology because its basic prerequisite for mass-rearing was further developed and success is the necessity for the mass reared steri- field pilot SIT applications were made possi- lized insects to exhibit the wild type biolo- ble in : Kassandra Northern Greece, 1973- gy ,behavior and vigor upon release into the host 1974, and Aghia Triada island off Evia, Cen- plantation environment of the insect species in tral Greece, 1979-1980. In spite of large question. Following the completion of my PhD numbers of sterile insects released, both studies at Berkeley in 1970, I was appointed Head sexes, and a high ratio of sterile over wild of the Entomology Group and Laboratory at flies achieved in the field, no effective wild “Demokritos, succeeding the founder of the Labor- population control was made possible. This atory M.Tzanakakis who by then had been elected led the Laboratory to extensive research on professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloni- the quality of released flies and changes in ki. The Laboratory had been already staffed dur- their biology and behavior as compared to ing the Tzanakakis period by J. Tsitsipis , V. Mazo- the wild population. In this effort several menos, A. Manoukas a PhD from New Hampshire, colleagues from abroad, mainly the USA, and G. Tsiropoulos. Tsitsipis and Tsiropoulos re- participated thanks to the generous fund- ceived subsequently their PhDs from Berkeley as ing of the Laboratory from Greek authori- well, while Mazomenos received a MSc from ties and international sources, among oth- Gainesville, Florida and eventually a PhD from ers FAO, IAEA, NATO, EU etc. To name Gent, Belgium. Finally G. Haniotakis, a PhD from some of the colleagues from abroad who Davis California, and G. Zervas, a PhD from Berlin, worked with us at Demokritos for short or also joined the Laboratory. In addition N. Avtzis, long periods : L. Steiner, N. Tanaka, R. Pro- with a BSc at that time in Forestry from the Aristo- kopy, B. Fletcher, K. Hagen, Th. Mittler, H. tle University of Thessaloniki, also joined the Gordon, J. Casida, W. Loher, J. Carey, J. Group and was positioned in Northern Greece for Tumlinson, G. Pomonis, G. Bush, B. Kitto, E. SIT experimentation and field applications. Thus Zouros and several others, the majority the Group grew up quickly to the biggest laborato- from Universities and USDA Laboratories in December 2019 3 Interview FFN#39 the USA. The outcome of this effort was an enormous amount of information with over 300 with the olive fly.
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