Greek American Scientists

The National Herald a b

DECEMBER 6, 2008 Volume III Volume www.thenationalherald.com

SPONSORED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC, DIMITRIS SIOUFAS, PRESIDENT 2 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008

The National Herald Greek American Scientists A weekly publication of the NATION- AL HERALD, INC. (ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ), reporting the news and addressing his issue of “Greek Farmers around the world the issues of paramount interest American continue to use an irrigation to the Greek American community of Scientists” informs method he invented. Shaped the United States of America. us of the like a large screw, it draws Publisher-Editor accomplishments of water from rivers. His Antonis H. Diamataris Teight Greek American experiments with the lever Assistant to Publisher, Advertising scientists and the impact they resulted in his statement of Veta H. Diamataris Papadopoulos have had on our lives. Since the law of simple machines: Special Section Managing Editor ancient times Greeks have the load times the distance Elaine Thomopoulos been at the forefront of the load moves equals effort Production Manager science. I recently read a book times the distance through Chrysoula Karametros entitled “100 Scientists Who which the effort is applied. He Changed the World” by John served under the patronage of 37-10 30th Street, LIC, NY 11101-2614 Tel: (718)784-5255, Hudson Tiner. Not surprising, Hieron II, the King of Fax: (718)472-0510, the first seven scientists listed Syracuse, who challenged him e-mail: english.edition@thenational- in the book are Greek. They to single handedly drag a herald.com www.thenationalherald.com include Pythagoras, barge out of the water. He did Hippocrates, Aristotle, Euclid, so with a compound pulley. Democritou 1 and Academias Sts, Athens, 10671, Greece Archimedes, Eratosthenes and The king also challenged him Tel: 011.30.210.3614.598, Fax: Galen. to determine whether a new 011.30.210.3643.776, crown was made of pure gold. e-mail: [email protected] Pythagoras (c. 580 – 500 He used the law of buoyancy, Subscriptions by mail: 1 year $66.00, B.C.), who believed that the which he discovered while 6 months $33.00, 3 months $22.00, 1 month $11.00 world was mathematical in taking a bath. As the story is Home delivery NY, NJ, CT: 1 year $88.00, nature, applied mathematics told, he leaped out of his bath 6 months $48.00, 3 months $33.00, 1 month $14.00 to music as well as to shouting “Eureka (I have Home delivery New England States, astronomy. He is best known found it!”). Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland: for developing the 1 year $109.00, 6 months $57.00, Pythagorean Theorem: the Eratosthenes (c. 276 – 196 3 months $41.00, 1 month $18.00 On line subscription: square of the length of the B.C.) wrote about Subscribers to the print edition: 1 year hypotenuse of a right triangle mathematics, astronomy, $34.95, 6 months $23.95, 3 months $14.95; Non subscribers: 1 year $45.95, is equal to the sum of the geography, history and 6 months $29.95, 3 months $18.95 squares of the lengths of its literary criticism. He invented other two sides. a system of latitude and longitude. The map he In the time of Hippocrates (c. 460 – 377 B.C.), doctors compiled of the world (which extended from the British Isles to believed that vengeful gods caused diseases. Hippocrates, the Sri Lanka and included countries bordering the Mediterranean father of medicine, came to the conclusion that each disease had Sea) was used for 200 years. Upon determining that the a natural cause. He said, “Find the cause, and then you can cure Egyptian solar calendar fell short on one day every fourth year, the disease.” He advised his patients to eat healthy, get plenty of he suggested adding an extra day every four years. Most rest and have clean surroundings. Sound familiar? Upon significant, he calculated the circumference of the earth at graduation, many of today’s medical students take a modern 25,000 miles, which was remarkably close to the measurement D O N ’ T M I S S version of the Hippocratic Oath, which is based on his guidelines calculated today: 24,902 miles. for honorable conduct. The Greek physician Galen (c. 130 to 200 A.D.) believed “a Our annual A student of Plato, Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 B.C.) founded the physician needs to study the body, as an architect needs to Lyceum in Athens. In his work he made careful observations, follow a plan.” He learned about human anatomy by studying collected various specimens, and summarized and classified the human skeletons, dissecting animals and observing humans in Christmas specimens. This became the basis for the scientific method as we his work as a physician at a school for gladiators. Although the now know it. He wrote treatises on logic, metaphysics, physics, more than 100 tracts and books he wrote contained some errors Special ethics and natural sciences. Although his works were forgotten (including that disease results from an imbalance of four vital in Europe during the Dark Ages, when they were reintroduced, fluids), he advanced medical knowledge by emphasizing the they exerted a major influence on Western thought. importance of understanding the human body.

“Elements of Geometry” by Euclid (c. 330 – 270 B.C.) was We bring you “Greek American Scientists” to honor modern used as a textbook for more than 2,000 years. His book, which day scientists and congratulate them. They have built upon the summed up the teachings of early mathematicians, included legacy of their predecessors. Like the early scientists that plane geometry, proportion, properties of numbers and solid preceded them, they are using their inquisitive minds and geometry. He proved that the number of prime numbers is creative spirits to change the world we live in. DECEMBER 20, 2008 infinite. Elaine Thomopoulos Using mathematical concepts to investigate the world, Managing Editor Archimedes (c. 287 – 212 B.C.) developed formulas for finding “Greek American Scientists” To advertise or to obtain rates: tel: (718) 784-5255 ext. 101, areas and volumes of spheres and cylinders and built inventions. E-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 3

Prologue by Mr. Dimitris Sioufas, President of the Hellenic Parliament, For The National Herald’s special “Greek American Scientists” insert

he roots of science can be traced to Ancient Greece and ancient Greek philosophy – from Thales of Miletos all the way to Aristotle. Today, the heart of the global scientific community beats in the United States – Twhich has become a second home to many Greeks of the Diaspora. Today’s Greek American scientists bear the burden of continuing their ancestors’ storied tradition in this field, both now in the present, and in the years to come. The seeds of this tradition were first planted in the United States thanks to Dr. George Papanikolaou, and are blossoming today thanks to prominent scientists who honor their Greek roots and grace the U.S. scientific community. The Hellenic Parliament is proud of all the scientists in the Greek Diaspora. The National Herald’s special issue dedicated to Greek American scientists illustrates their longstanding presence and contribution. In congratulating them, we hope that the next generation will follow their example all the more, and yield many new successes of their own. As Greeks, regardless of where we live, we honor our history, traditions, science and our Greek homeland. 4 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Stamatios Krimigis: Argus of the Space Age

By Mark N. Lardas tional Herald, “I did not know I Born in 1938, Stamatios grew Special to The National Herald would someday be part of teams up in Vrodtados along with his that would send things to the plan- brother, sister and mother. His fa- rowing up on the is- ets.” ther immigrated to the United land of Chios, Dr. Sta- Krimigis followed a tradition States just before World War II. His matios Krimigis never more ancient than the rocket wars. father intended to send for the dreamed his involve- When Jason set out the greatest family, but war intervened. The ment with rockets voyage of Greek mythology, Jason family was not reunited until the Gwould entail more than the Easter had the best shipwright of the age, early 1950s, when his father could rocket war in his home town of Argus, build the ship. Like Argus, finally return. Vrodtados. The congregations of Krimigis designs ships – except Stamatios’ earliest memories two churches in Vrodtados, St. Krimigis’ designs travel through in- are of the German occupation. “We Marcos and the Church of the terplanetary space. had a curfew. At night, we would Panayeas, celebrate Easter by Jason traveled to the then-dis- put an oil lamp on a low table, with shooting homemade rockets at tant reaches of the Black Sea. someone on lookout for German each other. Real rockets. Krimigis’ designs have traveled dis- patrols. If a patrol came by we Young Stamatios made and tances unimaginable to the Arg- would blow out the light until the launched missiles at the rival onauts: throughout the solar sys- patrol passed. When we played church. As Krimigis told The Na- tem and into interstellar space. outside, we would find shards of glass and use them to puncture the tires of German vehicles. At the time, Germans were not nice peo- ple.” Krimigis remembers his youth on Chios fondly. “We did not have electricity until I was in the sixth grade, but it was a happy exis- tence. We had enough food to eat and clothes to wear and good schools.” Greek society then appreciated the value of education. “There were special ceremonies where kids would get books, prizes, and recognition for academic achieve- ment, not sports.” Stamatios was a good student. He enjoyed both science and hu- manities, getting good grades in both subjects while he was in the “gymnasium” (Greek high school). He could have gone into anything, but his mother wanted him to be an engineer. “She had a pragmatic COURTESY STAMATIOS KRIMIGIS view of education,” recalled Krim- Stamatios Krimigis poses near the Atlas V rocket that carried the New igis, “telling me that engineers can Horizons spacecraft into space. New Horizons was successfully always find a job.” launched on January 19, 2006 and will arrive at Pluto on July 14, While his father was in America, 2015. he set aside money for his son to go to college. Krimigis went to the mentor. manned space exploration efforts. University of Minnesota living with After three years on the faculty Krimigis soon made the APL a ma- relatives of his mother, near Min- at Iowa, following the award of his jor player in planetary exploration, neapolis. He received a baccalaure- doctorate in 1965, Krimigis moved rivaling the Jet Propulsion Labora- ate in physics from Minnesota in to the Applied Physics Laboratory tory in California. 1961. From there, he went to the at Johns Hopkins University in Bal- Krimigis first drafted a proposal University of Iowa, where he re- timore, Maryland. He has been for the Pioneer 10 Mission, the first ceived both his masters and doctor- there ever since, eventually rising space probe sent to Jupiter. His ate. to the head of the APL’s Space De- team was not selected. “I was dis- At Iowa, Krimigis studied under partment in 1991, becoming its appointed,” he said, “but it proved legendary Dr. James Van Allen, one emeritus head in 2004. a good thing.” of America’s true space science pio- In 1968, when he arrived at the The loss meant his team was COURTESY STAMATIOS KRIMIGIS neers. Van Allen’s experiments, APL, there were few better places available for the next major pro- Dr. Stamatios Krimigis poses next to a half-scale mock-up of the which flew aboard the first Ameri- to be. It was the dawn of an age of ject, an ambitious effort to visit Cassini Spacecraft, now orbiting the planet Saturn. Krimigis is princi- can satellite, discovered the radia- planetary exploration. Johns Hop- multiple planets in one mission, pal investigator for the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument aboard tion belts that now bear his name. kins is close to Goddard Space possible because of a rare align- the Cassini. Krimigis considers Van Allen his Flight Center, home of NASA’s un- ment of planets. In 1970 Krimigis THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 5

successfully.” NEAR continued sending data back from Eros for two weeks after the landing. NEAR dramatically demonstrated the val- ue of low-cost interplanetary mis- sions. As a result, NASA created the Discovery Program for further low-cost planetary missions. Krimigis’ achievements have earned him an international repu- tation. The Academy of Athens elected him to the Chair of Science of Space in 2005. In 2007 he was made chairman of the Academy’s Section of Basic Science. Greece made him a delegate to the ESA Council in December 2006. He re- ceived the Smithsonian Trophy for Achievement in 2002. Aviation Week and Space Technology awarded him “Laurels in Space” in 1997 for his work on NEAR, and again in 2001 for resurrecting a mission to Pluto. With the arrival of the MES- SENGER at Mercury, he became the first scientist to have designed and built instruments that have gone to all eight planets. When New Horizons finally reaches Plu- to, one of his instruments will be aboard. That makes him the first scientist to send experiments to all nine objects considered planets JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY during the 20th century. Dr. Stamatios Krimigis, at the NEAR Mission Operations Center, announces the safe landing of the spacecraft on asteroid Eros in 2001. To his As for the future? left sit NASA Administrator Dan Goldin and Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, then chair of NASA's Subcommittee on Appropriations. He still conducts research and still publishes science. Krimigis plans to continue his exploration of wrote a proposal for the design and joyed having Germans around. space for as long as he can. For Sta- management of the mission’s By 1980 Krimigis had become matios Krimigis, the voyage contin- spacecraft, Voyager. chief scientist and head of the APL ues. It was a big mission. “We had Space Department. “I enjoyed run- The National Herald inter- stiff competition,” Krimigis remi- ning an engineering organization,” viewed Stamatios Krimigis. nisced. “Including a team led by Krimigis reminisced. “I managed a TNH: Who were the major in- Van Allen.” When the dust settled, program with 600 people and a fluences in your life? Krimigis’ team won. Van Allen was $200 million annual budget.” SK: Professor James Van Allen disappointed, but later told Krim- was the major influence in my ca- igis that if he had to lose, he was He had a problem, though. “In reer. He put me under his wing happy that he had lost to one of his the 1980s we did not have enough when I was at Iowa. I owe him a lot former students. missions. Galileo was the only ap- for what I have accomplished since It started a career designing in- proved mission. I could not keep then. He gave me my professional terplanetary spacecraft. The two my people busy. People were say- direction. Growing up, I would say Voyager spacecraft eventually visit- ing flying planetary exploration it was my teachers when I was in ed all four of the major outer plan- spacecraft were too expensive. I Chios. In fact, simply growing up ets. Krimigis was also principal in- tried to convince NASA and the sci- there with its emphasis on educa- vestigator for the Galileo mission ence community that low-cost mis- tion. I was lucky enough to have to Jupiter, the Cassini/Huyens mis- sions were possible. At the time good teachers who encouraged me sion to Saturn and its moon Titan, low-cost planetary mission was an to further my education and go to the Ulysses probe, which explored oxymoron.” college. the Sun’s Polar Regions, the Ad- “I convinced NASA to try one,” My mother was another big in- vanced Composition Explorer mis- he said. “The Near-Earth Asteroid fluence. I dreaded coming home sion exploring interplanetary Mission was the result. We got it with a B+ or A-. I would hear space, and the MESSENGER probe done on schedule and within bud- about it from my mother. She felt I to Mercury. get.” Krimigis and his team faced could do better. I did not like it In the mid-1980s he served as and overcame many challenges then, but now, I realize it was a the principal investigator for the with NEAR. It successfully ren- good thing. Charge Composition Explorer dezvoused with the asteroid Eros TNH: What led you to physics? Spacecraft, one of three satellites and spent a successful year around SK: As a freshman at Minnesota, in the Active Magnetospheric Parti- Eros. I started in electrical engineering. In cle Tracer Explorers Program. The Krimigis’ team then landed my sophomore year, I took physics mission was a collaborative effort NEAR on Eros. “It was not de- from an inspiring professor. He between the United States, Great signed to land,” said Krimigis. “But At the World Space Congress in 2002, Stamatios Krimigis received made me know that I wanted to go Britain and Germany. Krimigis it would have drifted off from Eros the COSPAR (Committee for Space Research) Space Science Award, into physics. I changed majors and worked closely with German scien- when we ran out of altitude control the highest scientific distinction that the worldwide space communi- have been a physicist ever since. tists and engineers on the project. fuel. So we thought, ‘Why not try ty bestows. Krimigis’ mentor, Prof. James A. Van Allen was the first Times change. This time, he en- it?’ We did it too, eased it down recipient of the award in 1984. Continued on page 22 6 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 The Fundamentals of our Universe: Dr. Vaia Papadimitriou Strives to Answer Eternal Questions

By Penelope Petropoul the fundamental building block of And then … scientists discovered us to understand the origins of the the building blocks (most basic ele- Special to The National Herald the universe. Fundamental in this that even these tiny protons and universe and what holds it togeth- ments) of matter and what holds hat is the universe case means basic – not made of neutrons are made of even tinier er. This understanding has vast im- them together. The field is also made of? What anything smaller. But scientists particles called quarks. Physicists plications for mankind and can fuel called high-energy physics because holds it together? then realized that atoms were in- now think that quarks and leptons advances in many realms of sci- as Papadimitriou explained, “to We realize that the deed made of something smaller. are the most fundamental building ence from cosmology to medical study the tiny particles you need world is made of They are made up of yet simpler blocks of the universe. Of course it technology. Of course, this knowl- high energy – it is somewhat like Wsome fundamental building blocks, building blocks and consist of a nu- is possible that there is a yet even edge can also satisfy our most basic when you use a microscope; the but what are they? As the website cleus and a cloud of negative elec- more fundamental particle out human desire to know and under- higher magnifying power you of the European Organization for trons. there but as of yet, none has been stand our world and how it was have, the more details you can see. Nuclear Research notes, the Greek Scientists then thought that this found. Physicists are constantly formed. The thirst for this knowl- Likewise, the higher energy we thinker Empedocles first described nucleus must be the most funda- looking for new particles, and edge is driving truly amazing re- have to probe matter, the more de- the elementals as earth, wind, fire mental component of the universe when they find them, they catego- search at Fermi National Accelera- tails we can see.” and water. Today we know that until a later discovery enabled rize them and study them to under- tor Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. Papadimitriou studies these de- there are things more fundamental them to realize that the nucleus stand how they interact. Dr. Vaia Papadimitriou is at the tails working on both the Accelera- yet – like the atom. For many years, was comprised of still smaller ele- So why does this all matter? Un- center of this research. She and her tor side and the Detector side. She it was thought that the atom was ments -- protons and neutrons. derstanding these particles helps colleagues in particle physics study serves as assistant division head of

FERMILAB Fermilab’s CDF detector, the size of a three-story house, weights about 6,000 tons. Its subsystems record the ‘debris’ emerging from high-energy-proton-antiproton collisions, un- veiling the secrets of the early universe. THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 7

sors (who had studied at the Uni- versity of Chicago) encouraged her to pursue graduate work there. Pa- padimitriou received her B.S. de- gree in physics from Aristotle Uni- versity of Thessaloniki. She was granted a four-year graduate fel- lowship at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (Demokritos) in Athens, Greece, in 1982, and in 1983, she became a graduate student at the University of Chicago. She received her M.S. degree in physics from the University of Chicago in June 1985 and her Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Chicago in 1990. Papadimitriou was a Leon Lederman Postdoctoral Fellow at Fermilab from 1990 - 1994 and un- til September 2005 was a professor at Texas Tech University. In August 2003, she accepted her current Fer- milab Scientific Staff position and since September 2005 she also has been serving as adjunct professor at Texas Tech University. When asked what advice she has for people wanting to excite children about physics, Papadim- itriou encouraged exposing chil- dren to as many opportunities as possible to learn about science. She noted that Fermilab is open to the public and that there are many free tours and programs for children and adults. Papadimitriou also en- couraged looking at the Fermilab FERMILAB website and commented on how The Fermilab accelerator complex in Batavia, Illinois, accelerates protons and antiprotons close to the speed of light. The Tevatron, four miles enthusiastic children of all ages in circumference, is the world’s most powerful accelerator. have been while on tours at Fermi- lab. Children are particularly im- Fermilab's Accelerator Division and plex and process the problem oc- many ways. As Papadimitriou not- what drives Papadimitriou is the pressed by the accelerators. Pa- has served as a member of the CDF curred. ed, the World Wide Web was creat- sheer pleasure of finding answers padimitriou also encourages talk- (Collider Detector at Fermilab) ex- As Fermilab’s website explains, ed so that physicists could share to some of life’s most fundamental ing with children about how things perimental collaboration for the the Tevatron, “accelerates protons vast amounts of data. And, MRI questions, and then translating her work in the world around them – past 18 years. Fermilab houses the and antiprotons close to the speed technology and medical accelera- excitement about physics to others. refrigerators, microwaves, base- world’s most powerful particle ac- of light, and then makes them col- tors also owe their existence to When asked what drew her to this ball, sailing. When one talks about celerator, the Tevatron. As Pa- lide head-on inside the CDF and work at accelerator laboratories uncommon field, Papadimitriou the scientific principles behind padimitriou explained, “We have D0 detectors. The detectors are be- like Fermilab. noted that a great high school household items and familiar activ- protons and antiprotons colliding ing used to study the products of Though this work has many di- teacher in Greece triggered her in- together every 396 nanoseconds such collisions.” The CDF collabo- rect and indirect benefits to society, terest, and then two college profes- Continued on page 23 and producing high energies (1.96 ration, of which Papadimitriou is a trillion electron volts at the center member, consists of approximately of mass), and out of these high en- 600 people from 53 institutions lo- ergies we have many new particles cated around the world. Beauty ñ Dignity ñ Security being produced.” The Fermilab ac- In addition to producing pro- celerator chain consists of eight ac- tons and antiprotons and sending One of the greatest gifts you can give to those you love is celerators and beam transport lines them through the accelerator, Pa- a sense of security, the knowledge that you have taken connecting them. As Papadimitriou padimitriou has been participating care of everything. A religious cemetery open to people of all faiths, noted, it takes the work of seven over the years in all stages of the St. Michael’s is proud to announce the beautifully de- accelerators before the protons and CDF detector building and its up- signed St. Joseph’s Mausoleum. antiprotons so carefully created grade, in the calibration and main- collide inside the largest accelera- tenance of the detector, in data tak- For more information including a free Resource Guide, tor, the Tevatron, which measures ing as well as the analysis of the please call four miles in circumference. And data. She is a coauthor of approxi- The St. Joseph more than three trillion antipro- mately 450 publications in peer-re- Mausoleum (718) 278-3240 tons must be collected before they viewed journals, has made numer- 72-02 Astoria Blvd. can be sent with the protons into ous presentations at national and East Elmhurst, NY 11370 the Tevatron ring. It is a huge com- international conferences and or visit our website at plex and a very complex endeavor. workshops, and has given many www.stmichaelscemetery.com Much careful preparation by Pa- academic seminars and colloquia. You’ll be glad you did. padimitriou and her colleagues The work Papadimitriou and takes place to ensure that beam cir- others like her do in particle We are proud to inform you culation and collisions happen physics advances our understand- that Mr. NICK P. PAPAMICHAEL smoothly, and if something goes ing of what the world is made of, still offers his services to the Omogeneia wrong, one must be a detective to and the technology used to enable (917) 687-9856 determine where in this vast com- this work has benefited society in 8 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Professor Christos Papadimitriou: Embracing the Past, Navigating the Future

By Nile Southern processes, crises and dramas that gust 16, 1949, the day that is con- Special to The National Herald went into the birth of his profes- sidered the beginning of the new sion. era — the day after the final defeat Christos Pa- His book, “Computational Com- of the (Communist) insurgents. padimitriou plexity,” is one of the most widely “When I was born, my father is a modern- used textbooks in the field of com- was teaching at Lidoriki. My child- day Greek putational complexity theory, and hood was all rural mountainous philosopher, his book “Algorithms,” (co-au- Greece, complete with a genuine scholar,Dr. novelist, essayist and theo- thored with Sanjoy Dasgupta and Roumeliot accent that would give rist. Papadimitriou, professor in Umesh Vazirani,) according to the me much grief for years after I the Computer Science Division at publisher, McGraw Hill, “explains came to Athens at the age of six. I the University of California, has the fundamentals of algorithms in went to an unremarkable elemen- written a dizzying array of papers a story line that makes the material tary school and the elite Varvakio on subjects dealing with “multi-ob- enjoyable and easy to digest.” De- high school. When I finished high jective optimization,” biology, spite his rigorous academic life in school in 1967, almost the day I database theory, complexity and the U.S., Papadimitriou keeps very finished, the coup that brought in the Internet. His inquiring mind close ties with Greece, where he the dictatorship happened.” delves into the history and future lives for several months each year. TNH: What was the dictatorship of man’s ability to quantify knowl- Christos Papadimitriou spent like for you? edge and use it most effectively. As his early childhood years in Lidori- CP: These were dark years for a writer of an innovative novel ki, a town near Delphi on Mount Greece. It was an operetta — like dealing with the history of comput- Parnassus. the Charlie Chaplin film “The Dic- ing, and a forthcoming graphic “My parents were born in Arca- tator.” Largely incompetent and novel, he says, “Mathematics and dia, in the Peloponnese, in two an- marginally sane people suddenly literature have been subjects that cient towns: my mother in Tegea, running a country — so it would be have been divorced for too long, my father close to Asea. My father funny if it wasn’t so tragic — if it but there is a movement to bring was a high school math teacher hadn’t truncated so many lives. them back together again. I think who was involved in the resistance TNH: How did it affect your my novels should be seen in this against the Germans — the liaison studies? spirit.” between the two major, and later CP: My student years were no For a man on the future’s cut- warring, resistance movements, fun. There was a resistance from ting-edge, Papadimitriou is in- EDES (Ethnikos Dimokratikos the beginning — it grew, and then spired by the past. His novel, “Tur- Ellinikos Syndesmos) and ELAS exploded. Today, I sit in front of my ing,” and his forthcoming graphic (Greek People’s Liberation Army). computer, I can click — and see the novel entitled “Logicomix,” written As the long war was winding to an whole world — as everyone in with playwright/mathematician end, in his late forties he met my Greece now does. But back then, I Apostolos Doxiadis, play out as an Mom, who, like him had given up was convinced that my destiny was Dr. Christos Papadimitriou relaxes on a boat off the island of Skyros. extended homage to the thought hope for family. I was born on Au- to stay in my town and my neigh- Papadimitriou visits Greece, his birthplace, annually. His novel “Tur- borhood — to be an engineer, and ing” explores the collision of Greek thought, invention and contem- live my life there. At Athens Poly- porary life. His main character, Alexandros, daydreams about technic I studied mechanical and Greece: “The sea, turquoise at the bays, elsewhere a shade of blue so electrical engineering — I didn’t subtle that only a blind poet has been able to do it justice ... a mathe- have an inclination for either sub- matician had told Alexandros that the Aegean shoreline is so haunt- ject—it was the most challenging ingly beautiful because its fractal dimension happens to be equal to and prestigious school to get into. I the golden ratio.” The photo was taken by Papadimitriou’s daughter, like mathematics. Eirene Markenscoff-Papadimitriou, who is now studying neuro- TNH: How did you come to science at the University of California, San Francisco. the United States? CP: I was foolish and selfish. TNH: At Princeton, what did captivated me immediately. It was The way I was thinking back then, I you study? a very dramatic moment for the de- thought the Greeks will never rise CP: Life is funny. Because of my velopment of computer science. up against the junta — it will be narrow horizons, I thought it was- More powerful computers were like Franco’s Spain for another 40 n’t possible to move away from my coming along. However, it was be- years. I came to the United States subject. So, I applied to Princeton’s coming clear that there were prob- expressly to flee that terrible situa- electrical engineering department. lems that computers could not tion. After I left the Army, I left But my application had complicat- solve fast enough. Greece immediately. Of course, the ed enough sentence structure for TNH: This opens up a theme irony is that two months after I left, them to place it in the computer that recurs in your work — the fas- as soon as I arrived at Princeton, sciences pile. While I was seeing cinating time which you’ve re- the student insurrection in Athens this as a way out of Greece, and a searched about the dawn of mod- DIMITRIS LAMPRIDIS Polytechnic, my school, erupted. way to continue with my life, I en- ern-day computer sciences — can Before moving to Athens at age six, Christos Papadimitriou spent his Some of my friends were killed. countered this incredible field — you talk about that? early childhood in Lidoriki, in Fokida, Central Greece, where his fa- Tragic event. But of course it was that became the passion of my life. CP: For the past 40 years, one of ther was a teacher. The town faces the scenic shore of Lake Mornou, the beginning of the end for the I remember feeling supernaturally, the most challenging intellectual pictured above, and he visits there often. The artificial lake did not Junta. By this time I was hooked in spiritually grateful and elated. The problems that comes out of com- exist when Papadimitriou was growing up. computer science. depth and elegance of this field puting is this: no matter how pow- THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 9 erful our computers become, there try to stop it. are certain tasks that are still be- TNH: Alan Turing was one of yond them. These are archetypical the seminal founders of computer hard problems. The technical term science and artificial intelligence is “NP-complete.” (Problems that before the War and after. He can be solved by computer, but brought together in his work sym- within unknown timeframes). In bolic logic, electrical engineering, the ’50s and ’60s computer scien- numerical analysis and a mechani- tists strived to solve the world’s cal vision of human thought problems. They came up against processes. What inspired you to certain quandaries — such as the write your book “Turing (a Novel traveling salesman problem. In this About Computation)”? problem, you have a bunch of CP: You must be familiar with cities, and you know the distances the great Greek poet Kavafis. I was between them. You want to orga- in Greece, and I had seen a film en- nize a tour of all the cities that min- titled “Kavafis” — about his life — imizes the amount of travel be- a very idiosyncratic biography. As I tween. The problem is, after all the was coming out of the theatre, this decades of working on this prob- idea came to me, ‘I’ll write a book lem, we don’t know a better way to called “Turing!” I was fascinated by solve it — other than enumerating the idea of paying homage to an in- all the possibilities. tellectual hero by a work of art that TNH: How has the Internet af- bears his name. So, that night the fected computer sciences? book was born. It is a tribute to CP: The Internet is surely one of Turing, in the form of a modern the most valuable resources — and love story that has the Internet as an indispensable public good. It its locale. has quenched and intensified the TNH: Tell us about your new thirst for information, for educa- project with playwright Apostolos tion, communication, publicity, so- Doxiadis: “Logicomix.” cial contact. Until the late ’90s I CP: Writing “Turing” changed was obsessed by the phenomenon This panel is from “Logicomix,” a graphic novel dealing with philosophers Bertrand Russell, Alfred North my life in many ways. Now, I hang of the computer. Then I realized Whitehead and Kurt Gödel, written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitiou. The book, forth- out with writers and artists, be- there was something more com- coming from Bloomsbury USA, also portrays the co-authors (featured above) as they collaborate to tell sides fellow nerds, and one of the plex and more perhaps more cru- the sprawling story. Artwork by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna. Reproduced by permission of the consequences is that soon after cial for humanity. In many ways authors, illustrators, and Bloomsbury USA. “Turing” was published, I met computer science is now like a nat- Apostolos Doxiadis, who had pub- ural science, or a social science. ter. There are intense and painful the public and its media? lished his own fascinating book Why? Because nobody really de- aspects — if you’re in love, it’s easy CP: I firmly believe that the In- “Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Con- signed the Internet — it sort of ap- to be disappointed. In the 1980s I ternet and all that came with it is jecture.” Almost as soon as we met, peared one morning. And so, we left my job at MIT and tried to go humanity’s greatest hope. There we had this crazy idea of writing must approach it the way neurosci- back to Greece to teach. It was a are many people who cannot see this account of a fascinating intel- entists approach the brain, or econ- fascinating few years, very beauti- beyond the detail of pornography. lectual story known as the Founda- omists approach the market — ful, unforgettable, but very painful The Internet is so important it is re- tions Crisis in mathematics. with the same awe, bewilderment and frustrating. I ended up return- ally missing the point to focus on TNH: What was that? and humility. ing to California. Back then there the negative. After 9/11, how CP: In the end of the 19th cen- TNH: Not to blow your own was a lot of corruption in the Greek many times have we read that Al tury people were getting better at horn, but do you think Greeks are academy, and no appreciation for Qaeda uses the Internet? Or the using math and science to change perhaps naturally suited to this technical competence or for excel- way the media report, say, a mur- the world, and they decided to kind of large-scale, grand think- lence. What it means to be a good, der-suicide of young lovers — who make a completely impeccable as- ing? successful academic in the U.S. is met on the Internet. If they had sembly line out of this, and really CP: Excellent point. Who different from what it meant in met at a bus stop, would it be men- try to understand how mathemat- knows? Of course I’ve contemplat- Greece back then. This is changing tioned? When you see it, it reads ics is done, to systematize it, and ed thoughts like that. There are an — I think research in Greece has like a condemnation — an indict- ultimately try to mechanize it. amazingly large number of excel- been improving, but academia in ment. Perhaps the biggest thing Some of the world’s greatest math- lent computer scientists of Greek Greece still has terrible, terrible that’s happening right now is social ematicians were consumed by this origin working in the United problems, unfortunately. networks — which we started vision. Bertrand Russell advanced States. Completely disproportion- TNH: Why do you think that hearing about two years ago. So, it as much as he could until he be- al. Frankly, in my opinion, it has a is? what will happen in 2020? There came completely disillusioned and lot to do with the fact that there is CP: The students I encountered are people who tell you they know, bitter with it, and ultimately Kurt a lot of talent in Greece, and the in the ’60s—God bless them for but they’re lying. Gödel in early 1930s — perhaps Greek universities, until recently, choosing to interfere with politics TNH: What do you say to peo- the greatest scientist of the previ- left a lot to be desired, especially in and work heroically against au- ple who are afraid the Internet may NIKOS KOKKALIAS ous century — proved the devas- terms of continuing study. And so a thoritarianism. It was a time of bring harm to their children? Apostolos Doxiadis, pictured tating ‘Incompleteness Theorem’ lot of Greeks flooded the United change, and of sort-of Revolution, CP: I understand the dangers, of above, and Christos Papadimitri- that says there can be no foolproof States for graduate studies and and their presence was invaluable. course. I do have a pre teen-age ou wrote the graphic novel, mathematical system that proves have excelled academically. But I think that the same students daughter, but I would be scared if “Logicomix.” Papadimitriou says all theorems. This was an incredi- TNH: What are your feelings are now the most reactionary and she didn’t get involved in the Inter- of the book: “It is really the story ble point for science, because sud- about Greece? Have you gone back backwards force in Greek acade- net. It would mean that she would of two friends, Apostolos and denly scientists realized that not all to teach there? mia. Unfortunately, nowadays stu- be locked out of what is interesting myself, as they try to understand problems can be solved, that there CP: I love the state of California, dent organizations in Greece are and has a tomorrow. Can there be the lives and times and ideas of are limits to our abilities to under- I love Berkeley — but none of these carrying the water for corrupt po- too much gaming, too much tex- the remarkable people who de- stand and harness the world, and, have reached inside me the litical parties, and oppose the ting and you-tubing? Of course veloped mathematical logic – the in fact, these limitations are in a pedestal where Greece lives. It’s a much-needed transformation of there can. But I believe these chil- science of rigorous reasoning – fundamental way computational – bitter love. Greek universities. dren will be different from us. I’m and to come to grips with the especially apparent after Turing’s TNH: Why? TNH: Do you think the value of not sure in which direction, but it’s strange fact that so many of CP: Because great loves are bit- the Internet is fully appreciated by a new world. It makes no sense to them died insane.” Continued on page 22 10 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Professor James Kakalios: Superman in Disguise

By Elaine Thomopoulos right or wrong. If you have a super mata about 80 years ago when she Special to The National Herald power, what do you do with it? ... was 16 years old. Kakalios reported We all have talent. What do you do that she did not know anybody James with it? How do you decide what when she came to America and Kakalios, the you do with it? Besides, there were worked as a seamstress. His grand- mild-man- very cool explosions.” father worked as a restaurant chef. nered, soft- Comic books helped shaped his They raised their two boys in the spoken, be- interest in science. “There is an in- Ditmars neighborhood, which was spectacledDr. professor (Superman in doctrination in the sciences. The like “little Greece.” disguise?) packs a big punch in his spirit. There is a high emphasis in His father, Nicholas, past presi- physics courses. By using examples knowing the rules of the game, cre- dent of the Greek cabdrivers asso- gleaned from his encyclopedic ative problem solving, out-thinking ciation, and mother, Augusta,a sec- knowledge of superheroes, dating the bad guys.” ond generation Latvian, brought from the 1930s, he grabs the atten- He added, “When I go to comic up their two boys in the Woodside tion of his students, while they in book conventions, it is striking how neighborhood of New York, where turn learn about physics. The excit- many people work in high tech, sci- the TV series “All in the Family” ing freshman seminar he created at ence, information technology. A lot was supposed to have taken place. the University of Minnesota, of scientists got their start reading When I asked him to tell me “Everything I Know about Physics I comics. But so few wear capes.” about those in his family who influ- Learned by Reading Comic Books,” ESTEEMED EXPERIMENTAL enced him, he responded: “My par- helped him earn two teaching PHYSICIST ents. My father. Got my work ethic awards in 2003: the Institute of Kakalios has made the most of from him. My mother – I got the Technology Student Board – his talents, as a teacher, author, as Latvian strong work ethic from her. School of Physics and Astronomy well as an experimental physicist. Books and literature were impor- Professor of the Year, and the He became a professor at the Uni- tant to her. We were always going Charles E. Bowers Faculty Teaching versity of Minnesota, after receiv- to public library. She was a reader. Award. It also led to his being fea- ing his bachelor’s degree at City Books were always around the tured in magazines such as People, College of New York and then his house. Also important was my fa- and his popular book, “The Physics Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. ther’s brother, (Stanley), principal of Superheroes.” Kakalios said, “Upon joining the and district superintendent in the POPULAR PROFESSOR School of Physics and Astronomy New York City schools. Education This is how his students de- at the University of Minnesota in was highly regarded in my family.” scribe him: 1988, I have built up a research He and his wife Therese have al- “A really funny guy, you don’t program in experimental con- so stressed the importance of edu- know how helpful humor can be in densed matter physics, with partic- cation in their own family. Thomas understanding any subject until ular emphasis on complex and dis- just started University of Chicago, you have a prof like Kakalios. His ordered systems. My current re- his parents’ alma mater. His daugh- lecture might be the only one you search ranges from the Nano to the ter Laura is a senior in high school, make a point NOT to skip, just be- Neuro.” and David is in the ninth grade. Re- cause he makes the topics that in- With the goal of developing garding his children, he quips, teresting.” new material that would lead to “That’s why I am an expert on “Kakalios is the man! He may cheaper and better solar cells, he noise and disordered systems.” have his quirks, but a very smart has been studying the optical and In my contact with him, guy.” electronic properties of hydro- TOM FOLEY/UNIV. OF MINNESOTA Kakalios interspersed the serious “Hilarious. Loves Spiderman, or genated amorphous silicon thin Dr. James Kakalios, professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy with the humorous. In an email he comic books in general. He does films containing silicon nanocrys- at the University of Minnesota, has built up a research program in related: “I'm off with my family to lots of cool experiments through- talline inclusions. The research elu- experimental condensed matter physics at the university. His best- drive my oldest son off to college. out the semester.” cidates the properties of these selling book, "The Physics of Superheroes," developed out of a popu- (I can't be that old! There must be “Professor Kakalios is a Riot, mixed phase materials in order to lar and exciting freshman seminar he created: "Everything I Know some slip in the space-time contin- dude knows his stuff, and makes it optimize their characteristics for About Physics I Learned By Reading Comic Books.” uum!).” entertaining. You will love his con- solar cell applications. He says, “I He got serious when I asked stant reference to comic book char- have helped advance the under- oscillation in the straitum which think not so much. It is like the him, “What are your accomplish- acters; you know he has read them standing of the electronic proper- may have implication for our un- Wild West. Lot of fun from a scien- ments?” He didn’t respond with a all. This guy is awesome and a ties of amorphous silicon conduc- derstanding of Parkinson’s Disease. cific point of view. It’s at the fore- list of his myriad accomplishments great teacher. You will enjoy his tors used to make the solar cells. I asked him to explain the experi- front of science. At this stage, there but with his goals, “I try to be a class.” (Ratemyprofessors.com) These (conductors) are currently ment, “You stick an electrode in, is so much that is not understood good husband and father, good COMIC BOOK FAN in use in solar cells, flat panel dis- and you record the voltages that so it makes it a very exciting time teacher and scientist.” When I asked him about the plays, copiers and in many other are coming from all the neurons for scientists. AUTHOR OF “PHYSICS role of comic books in his life, he applications.” that are firing. What you will see is FAMILY MAN OF SUPERHEROES” reminisced, “I remember sitting In collaboration with a profes- total chaos in the voltages and sud- Family plays an important role Kakalios is best known to the out on the brick stoop reading sor of neuroscience at the universi- denly you will record a very coher- in Kalalios’ life. His paternal grand- general public for “The Physics of comics, not even being able to ty, A. David Redish, he is conduct- ent oscillation or sign wave that father, George, and grandmother, Superheroes.” In this book, which I read. I picked up vocabulary. You ing investigations of voltage fluctu- comes through and will suddenly Eva Giannoulis, immigrated to reviewed for the Greek Circle Mag- could follow what was happening.” ations recorded from the brains of disappear. Nobody understands America from Greece. His yiayia azine, he demonstrates his “Super- “There was a philosophy that awake, behaving rats. This has led what this is yet. Some people thing came from a family of about 12 man” power as a gifted author. He came through. They teach ethics, to the identification of a coherent it is very important; other people children and emigrated from Cala- knocked out the “afraid of science THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 11 and math” trait in me and with hu- mor and wit taught me how every- day things like the human body, automobile airbags, transistors, television, microwave ovens and dimpled golf balls work. Within this easy-to-read volume he covers Newton’s laws of motion, conservation of energy, thermody- namics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, and much more. He introduces “other-world” phenomenon as the Big-Bang theo- ry, time travel, and parallel uni- verses. Of the latter he notes, “The many worlds model has been locked in the metaphoric attic until very recently.” He was never taught this model in school but discovered it by accident when as a graduate student he came across a copy of “The Many-Worlds Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics.” He in- forms us that today’s string theo- rists support this model. Kakalios ventures into answer- ing questions that illustrate New- ton’s Laws of Motion. One such question: How was Superman able to “leap tall building in a single bound”? The answer: He was born on Krypton, which theoretically had a gravitational pull 15 times more than of Earth. His stronger bones and muscles enabled him to accomplish this feat. He also answers the query about what made Krypton explode: a super-dense and unstable materi- al like a neutron star at its core. He speaks of the creators of Super- man, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, with admiration, “These teenagers from Cleveland, Ohio, either had an understanding of astrophysics and quantum mechanics that ex- ceeded that of many contemporary physics professors in 1938, or they were very lucky guessers.” In the section called “The Day Gwen Stacy Died: Impulse and Mo- mentum,” he explores whether or not the web Spiderman used to try to save his girlfriend when she was hurled from the Washington Bridge by the Green Goblin actually killed her instead. Answer: it did. Whether or not you are a comic book fan or not, the comic hero/heroine examples give you a chuckle and teach a lesson. Take the example of Ant-Man, who is as tiny as an ant, yet maintains the strength of a normal size human. How does he escape from the vacu- um bag the villain has sucked him into? On the way to the answer an explanation is given about levers, torque and rotation and the won- der of the human body. Kakalios notes, “Our strength comes from our muscles and skeletal structure that make up a series of intercon- necting levers.” After explaining “The Physics of Superheroes”: Within this easy-to-read volume James Kakalios covers Newton’s laws of motion, conservation of energy, ther- Continued on page 23 modynamics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, and much more. 12 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Traianos Gagos: Breathing New Life into Charred Ruins

By Artemis Leontis tance. When he returned from ex- jacent to the Byzantine Church of Special to The National Herald ile, marriage stigmatized his new Petra, Jordan burned down. It was bride, who was denied permission part of the church’s storage facili- uins from burned build- to emigrate to Germany to work. ties where the archdeacon kept his ings of entirely different The young Traianos felt the effects personal papers and some church eras have touched the of his parents’ shaky political and documents. The charred effects of life of Dr. Traianos Ga- economic position from his early that room were about 130 flat- gos, professor of Greek existence. The family lived on tened, carbonized scrolls. These andR papyrology at the University of whatever it could cultivate on eight hand-inscribed “papyri,” produced Michigan, in important ways. “stremmata” (about 8000 square from the fibrous papyrus plant of In the early 1940s during World meters). Little Traianos started the Nile Delta (the English “paper” War II, the Nazi occupying forces working in the tobacco fields when derives from the Greek “papyros”), burned his paternal home in Karpi, he was five. He remembers his remained buried underground un- a village of Kilkis northwest of mother and aunt taking the place til their chance discovery in De- Thessaloniki. The destruction came of a dead horse behind the plow. cember 1993. In this case, Petra’s in retaliation for his grandfather’s He learned early on how hard, in- loss was Gagos’ gain. He has built participation in the Resistance secure and unfair life can be, and his reputation on deciphering the movement. Having lost his home, determined to carve a different carbonized Petra Papyri. Gagos’ father lived at the mercy of path for himself. Gagos is a trained papyrologist. others. He had to flee the country Around the turn of the seventh This means that he works to con- at the end of the Greek Civil War in century A.D., more than 1300 serve, decipher, and interpret “pa- 1949 because the family was iden- years before the Gagos family’s pyri,” ancient literature preserved tified with the left during the resis- very consequential loss, a room ad- on papyrus manuscripts from the Greco-Roman world. He holds the positions of professor of Greek and papyrology in the University of Michigan Department of Classical Studies, archivist of papyrology in the Graduate Library, and director of the Advanced Papyrological In- formation System a worldwide col- lections-based repository hosting images and information about pa- pyrological materials. Gagos reached the top of his field through years of hard work — and sacrifice by his parents. When his mother’s emigration request was denied, the family became in- ternal migrants, moving to Thessa- loniki in 1970 and laboring so that Traianos and his sister, Eleni, could continue their studies beyond ele- mentary school. His parents sent Traianos to Germany in 1976 to ELAINE TSANGARIDES visit cousins and learn some Ger- Dr. Traianos Gagos holds a burnt Petra papyrus, set between glass. man. In 1978 Traianos gained en- The photograph was taken at the American Center for Oriental Re- try to the University of Ioannina search, where he conducts his research. More than 1300 years ago, a and studied philology, the science storage facility adjacent to the Byzantine Church of Petra, Jordan of language and literature with a burned down. The charred effects of that room were about 130 flat- special focus on classical Greek and tened, carbonized scrolls. These hand-inscribed papyri, produced Latin texts. He was exposed to pa- from the fibrous papyrus plant of the Nile Delta, remained buried un- pyrology in his fourth year, and derground until their chance discovery in December 1993. Gagos has found he could easily read its bro- built his reputation on deciphering the carbonized Petra papyri. ken bits of difficult, ancient hand- writing. pyrologist’s decipherings bring but their liability when they used In fact, he liked deciphering pa- readers face to face with the con- the land to secure a loan. The prop- pyri’s coded language. It was like tingencies of human activities. This erty went to Nikantinoos’ nephew bringing the dead back to life. In is true especially in documentary and nieces, who sold it to Aurelios Gagos’ eyes, papyrology is a bridge papyri. For example, P. Mich. inv. Phoibammon and his wife Aurelia not only between disciplines — it 6922, a Greek text from around Anastasia. So Nikantinoos found Here is a detail from the Petra Papyri, volume 1, text #5, a request for combines archaeology’s work of 537A.D. that professor Gagos edit- himself paying for land he did not transfer of taxation responsibility, dating from 538 CE. It is a multi- excavation and conservation with ed, is a deed settling a dispute over own and a debt that was not his, spectral digitized image produced by Steven W. Booras and Gene A. philology’s reading and interpret- a piece of land. Poor Aurelios while Phoibammon and Anastasia Ware, Institute for the Study and Preservations of Ancient Religious ing texts. “It’s a bridge between Nikantinoos inherited from his par- were enjoying both the property Texts, Brigham Young University. past and present,” he says. The pa- ents not the land he was expecting and Nikantinoos’ mortgage pay- THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 13 ments. In this scrap of ancient pa- famous are the Herculaneum pa- per the entire scene comes to life: pyri, discovered in a Roman villa the names, troubles, pain, advice buried by ash during the eruption of mediators and finally the settle- of Mt. Vesuvius in 79A.D.) have a ment. (You can see an image of the charcoal-like, blackened appear- papyrus and read Gagos’ transla- ance. They are usually heavily dam- tion by searching “6922” on aged. However, the process of car- http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/im- bonization also protects them from age/image-idx?c=apis.) future decay. With the help of mod- No matter how mundane their ern multispectral imaging tech- subject, papyri seem to preserve niques, papyrologists are learning the sense of human lives hanging to read the contents without taking by a thread. Perhaps Gagos’ enthu- the scrolls apart. The interpretive siasm for papyrology found fuel in challenges are certainly equal to his student job working in a law of- the technical ones. The Petra Papyri fice. From his direct experience are the only written pages in an watching lawyers and their clients’ otherwise blank history book for doing everything they could to the city and the region. How does twist the law in their favor, he one make sense of them? could smell the flesh and blood Gagos has learned from life to hidden between the lines of an- turn a handicap into an advantage. cient legal contracts. What Petra offers is a great archae- “You have a gift,” Gagos’ profes- ological context. Most ancient pa- sor, Manolis Papathomopoulos, de- pyri have lost the context of their clared. He helped Gagos secure production and transmission by one of two doctoral fellowship of- the time they reach scholars’ fered in 1984 for Greek students hands, but the Petra Papyri were wishing to study papyrology found “in situ.” abroad. At the University of In the texts, which preserve ti- Durham in England, Traianos com- tles and inscriptions from 500 pleted his Ph.D. with David years ago, Gagos hears the voices Thomas in 35 months, defending of people telling him they are not his thesis on Nov. 17, 1987. provincial; they are from a differ- The early 1980s were a turning TERRENCE SZYMANSKI ent place. He hears the anxiety of point for papyrology. Duke Univer- Dr. Traianos Gagos is at Petra, Jordan, where the Petra papyri were discovered in 1993. He travels to Jor- people in the margins who are say- sity began to create the first search- dan each summer to research the Petra papyri, which are more than 1300 years old. Gagos, a trained pa- ing, “What’s going on out there? able electronic databank of docu- pyrologist, works to conserve, decipher, and interpret papyri, ancient manuscripts from the Greco-Ro- Do we matter? Are we a part of mentary papyri. This was the be- man world. this?” Gagos works closely with ar- ginning of the new science of papy- chaeologists as he tries to grasp the rology using modern technology. Throughout the academic year “My real efforts at popularizing pa- early seventh century, however, the perspective on life in the provinces Eventually the electronic corpus Gagos balances a dizzying number pyrology are to be found in our years when the Byzantine Church in late antiquity. He is currently would include all published Greek of time-consuming activities: own U-M webpages, where I have collapsed and burned, Petra was in working toward a publication of and Latin texts found on papyri, os- teaching, advising, supervising un- overseen the production of several decline after several shattering the papyri that will make both the traka (broken pieces of ancient dergraduate honors theses and modular exhibits for general audi- earthquakes and changes in over- texts and their context available for pottery with writing scratched on Ph.D. dissertations, overseeing and ences and K-12 education” land trade routes. future scholars. their surface) or wooden tablets. researching U-M’s very significant (www.lib.umich.edu/pap). Yet Petra’s carbonized papyri Where does he go when he Currently the databank contains Papyrus Collection, training staff, He devotes his summers to re- found in the annex of the burned wants to get away? His vacation over 5 million words and nearly writing grants and reaching out to search on the Petra papyri in Am- Byzantine Church, which Gagos days are just a handful, but Gagos 500 volumes. the broader community by giving man, Jordan. Gagos first went to has been studying now for 13 knows the destination. In 1967 his In 1988 the University of Michi- lectures, interviews, and tours. Petra in 1995 on a National En- years, belie the sense of isolation. parents began building on the site gan announced the position of A big part of his work involves dowment for Humanities grant “Here are texts dated to the period of the destroyed house in Karpi. proofreader for the Duke databank. overseeing the Michigan portion of with Professor Koenen so that they of 537-94, when Petra was part of They completed the house in the Gagos applied and got the job. His the Advanced Papyrological Infor- could begin conserving and deci- the Byzantine Empire. They show 1980s, and, since their retirement, career did not follow a straight, mation System. APIS expands the phering the Petra Papyri. He took the people of Petra making con- spend summers there, winters in easy path. He was proofreader from Duke databank to produce a virtual to Petra like a fish to water or, tacts outside their narrow Thessaloniki. Gagos manages to 1988-1990. During a hiatus in library of digital images and cata- more aptly, since Gagos is ethnical- province. They were attending to visit Greece each summer. When funding in 1990-92 he introduced logue records from many universi- ly Vlach, like a nomad to a cara- the Imperial oaths of Justinian; he does, he kicks back his heels for modern Greek language instruction ty collections. Between 1991 and van-route city. Inhabited since pre- they were looking to Constantino- a few days in the family home, at U-M, at the suggestion of Prof. 1995 Professor Gagos led this ex- historic times, Petra (from the ple and had distinguished scholars built on the charred ruins of the Ludwig Koenen, a fellow papyrolo- pansion by digitizing the Michigan Greek word “petra,” rock) is a residing in Gaza. And their lan- house the Nazis burned. gist, then chair of the Department Papyrus collection and putting it crossroads. It lies in a basin among guage is an interesting mixture. of Classical Studies at U-M. He had on the World Wide Web. His hope the mountains east of the large val- There are texts in Greek with Latin Dr. Artemis Leontis is associate the idea that a good department of that other universities would join ley that runs from the Dead Sea to terms; buildings and land plots list- professor of Modern Greek at the classics should represent the full U-M eventually materialized. Ga- the Gulf of Aqaba and connects ed in Greek but combining Arama- University of Michigan. Her range of Greek, from Homer to its gos holds a very deep political be- Egypt, Syria, and Arabia. The ic and Arabic. Place names are of books include “Topographies of youngest living speakers. Good en- lief in democracy, and he applies Nabateans, a nomadic tribe, made Semitic origins, but personal Hellenism: Mapping the Home- rollments were the condition for this to his academic work. For the it their capital in the second centu- names are Romanized. The land” (Cornell 1994), “Greece: A Modern Greek’s continuation and past 20 years, he has been working ry B.C., and the city flourished as province is trying to make itself rel- Traveler’s Literary Companion” Gagos managed this too, passing on tirelessly to make papyrus frag- an economic and religious centre evant to the Empire.” (Whereabouts 1997), “…what a healthy program to his succes- ments widely accessible. He wishes in the Roman and early Byzantine Reading the Petra Papyri pre- these Ithakas Mean: Readings in sors. From 1991 to 1995 he was to put the sources of knowledge in- periods for several centuries, pri- sents interpretive as well as techni- Cavafy” (ELIA 2002), and “Cul- lecturer in Modern Greek and asso- to everyone’s hands. In fact, today marily because of its place in the cal problems. The technical chal- ture and Customs of Greece” ciate archivist of the Papyrus Col- anyone can search the APIS web- long distance trade in spices and lenge derives from the papyri’s (Greenwood, forthcoming). For lection at the U-M Graduate Li- site to get a close view of these aromatics. Half-built, half-carved burned, compressed state. How the past three years, she has brary. He became full archivist in once buried treasures. And he has into sandstone cliffs, it blended does one take apart charred re- been creating an archive of inter- 1995, associate professor in 1999, taken the work of bringing papyri Eastern traditions and Hellenistic mains without destroying every views with Greek American intel- and full professor in 2008. to mass audiences even further. architecture. By the late sixth and trace? Carbonized papyri (the most lectuals, artists and scientists. 14 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Leda Cosmides: A Revolutionary Evolutionist

By John P. Psiharis Bethesda, Maryland at the age of tives being proposed would pro- Special to The National Herald two. Her father, an accomplished duce the utopias that people envi- pharmacologist, had accepted a sioned. I soon realized that, if you Leda Cos- position at the National Institute of want to improve society, you first mides, often Health, eventually becoming asso- need to understand human nature. in concert ciate director of the National Li- Otherwise, you are likely to make with her brary of Medicine. Prior to his gov- things worse rather than better.” partner and ernment service, he helped invent The creative individualism of husband,Dr. anthropologist Dr. John stelazine, while working for Smith, students at Harvard University at- Tooby, revolutionized the field of Kline and French. The pill is still tracted Cosmides to enroll in their psychology through groundbreak- used today to treat schizophrenia. undergraduate program. “When I ing research into the emerging As an inventor of the pill, he was visited Harvard, I met people who field of evolutionary psychology. invited to suggest a name for the were doing interesting and exciting Her work has been internationally new drug. He named it in honor of things on their own initiative — recognized and her honors have his favorite cousin, Stella. At that very different from other schools, been many. time, Cosmides recalls, the Freudi- where most students just did what She has traveled the globe to ans considered psychopharmacolo- they were told.” “The field of evo- spread the word about evolution- gy an anathema for mental illness. lutionary psychology did not exist ary psychology, a field that she pio- “It’s remarkable that it is still in at that time. But after my freshman neered and helped to bring to the use. It is still an effective drug,” year, I discovered that Harvard was forefront of modern psychology. says Cosmides. a hot bed of research into evolution Japan was just her latest destina- Her interest in psychology came and behavior.” tion. While there this past summer, early in high school, where she was As a sophomore, Cosmides met Cosmides participated in several a good student who excelled at Robert L. Trivers, an associate pro- human behavior and evolution math and science. But she was COURTESY OF LEDA COSMIDES fessor at Harvard and a major fig- meetings. She met with Japanese worried about the state of the Dr. Leda Cosmides receives the American Association for the Ad- ure in the field of evolutionary bi- colleagues who shared her passion world: “If you are a child in the late vancement of Science Prize for Behavioral Science Research from Dr. ology. “I learned a lot of my evolu- for evolutionary psychology. Cos- sixties, you grow up with war, as- Richard Atkinson, president of AAAS, in 1989. tionary biology from him,” says mides has given lectures through- sassinations, demonstrations and Cosmides. She joined a group of out the United States, as well as intergenerational conflict. From cause we lived in a suburb of Wash- better ways might be. Cosmides like-minded scholars who met reg- London, Edinburgh, Rio de our backyard, you could see the ington D.C. The world seemed like continued, “It felt like every insti- ularly at the home of Irven DeVore, Janeiro, Berlin, Munich, Aarhus, smoke from Washington burning a mess, and I thought there must tution and tradition was being up- a professor of anthropology at Har- Mexico City, Vancouver, Montreal when Martin Luther King was be better ways for people to live.” rooted and discarded, sometimes vard. “There was an intellectual and Sao Paulo. killed. Every demonstration, for But she also thought that ideology for good reasons, but usually with- revolution going on, and Irv De- She has traveled to Greece, the every cause, was local news be- alone could not tell you what these out any evidence that the alterna- Vore’s living room was its head- ancestral home of her mother’s quarters,” she said. So Cosmides family. They come from a village stayed at Harvard for graduate near Tripoli in the Peloponnesus school in cognitive psychology. Al- region of Greece. Her maternal though Harvard’s psychology facul- grandfather came to the United ty at that time were mostly hostile States at age 12. He worked on the to evolutionary approaches to their railroads and started a neighbor- field, Cosmides found support and hood grocery store. The store, lo- camaraderie from the primatolo- cated on Chicago’s north side, was gists, anthropologists, and evolu- a precursor to today’s supermar- tionary biologists in DeVore’s kets, featuring products of multiple “Simian Seminar”. vendors, a concept that was not It was at this time that Cos- common in that era. As a shop- mides met John Tooby a graduate keeper, he was a target of theft and student in biological anthropology attempted mafia shakedowns, at Harvard. The two would not on- which he resisted. Eventually he ly form a personal bond through went back to his village in Greece marriage but would also go on to to find a wife. collaborate professionally. “We do Her father’s family came from everything together. All of our Turkey. Her paternal grandfather work is collaborative,” explains came from Corlu and her paternal Cosmides. “There is no competi- grandmother from Constantinople. tion. What is good for John is good Her paternal grandfather fled for me. We think very similarly Turkey to avoid persecution. He which is helpful.” settled in West Virginia and later “At that time, most psycholo- Pittsburgh. He corresponded by gists thought that the human mind mail with his soon-to-be wife and is a blank slate,” Cosmides remem- did not meet her until the day of bers. Psychology was dominated by their marriage. COURTESY OF LEDA COSMIDES the philosophy of B. F. Skinner, a Born in Philadelphia in 1957, Dr. Leda Cosmides receives the National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award from Elias Zarhouni, NIH Di- leading psychologist of his time Cosmides moved to a town near rector in 2005. Cosmides was one of 13 recipients from over 800 nominees. and a professor of psychology at THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 15

Harvard University. Skinner was a bara. Tooby was invited to join the “radical behaviorist” who thought faculty there in 1990, and Cos- the brain had two, and only two, mides in 1991. “There were not a laws of learning, based on reward lot of academic jobs available. We and punishment. “By rewarding or were just looking to be employed punishing people in just the right in the same city. This was heaven. way, he thought you could elicit We were very happy to come here any behavior you wanted — he and delighted that we ended up at thought you could make a woman the same university. We lucked want to nurse another woman’s out.” In 2000, she was elevated to child as much as her own, or make full professor status within the De- a man delighted to find his wife partment of Psychology. having sex with another man,” Inspired by this newfound acad- Cosmides explains. emic support, Cosmides and Tooby Evolutionary psychology is would go on to co-found and co-di- based on the notion that evolution rect the Center for Evolutionary applies as much to the brain as it Psychology at UCSB. Created in does to other organs in the body. 1994, the Center is, as Cosmides Cosmides explains, “When you describes it “a clearinghouse for re- look at other organs of the body, search and training in evolutionary you find specializations: the heart psychology.” “Human nature is is well-designed for pumping central to everything, so scholars blood, the liver for detoxifying poi- from many fields come to the Cen- sons — each was engineered by ter. It is great for our students,” natural selection to solve a particu- Cosmides added. lar problem very well.” To survive “People who are interested in and reproduce, “our hunter-gath- evolutionary psychology can be in erer ancestors had to solve many different academic departments different kinds of problems, each such as psychology, biology, educa- of which required programs that tion, anthropology or medicine. process information in a precise We meet weekly to design research way.” For instance, our minds with our graduate students and evolved some programs specialized COURTESY OF LEDA COSMIDES with visitors from other universi- for acquiring language, others for Leda Cosmides and John Tooby are with her parents, George and Nasia Cosmides, in 2006. ties who come here on sabbatical. avoiding incest, for choosing Grad students and professors have mates, for avoiding predators, for Her honors include: Recipient come from Denmark, Belgium, cooperating with others, and so on. of the National Institutes of Health England, France and throughout Cosmides explains, “Taking seri- Director’s Pioneer Award; a the US,” Cosmides explained. ously the idea that the brain con- Guggenheim Fellowship, the Amer- A focus of the Center has been tains a collection of programs, each ican Association for the Advance- its site in the Ecuadorian Amazon. of which was designed by natural ment of Science Prize for Behav- The site has provided the ideal set- selection to solve a different adap- ioral Science Research, and the ting for cross-cultural experiments. tive problem, changes your scien- American Psychological Associa- Cosmides explains, “It is different tific intuitions. Our ancestors were tion’s Distinguished Scientific in as many ways as possible from hunters and gatherers who had to Award. She has authored or edited, life in the U.S. The people there be able to find food, hunt, attract often in collaboration with Tooby, live among kin in tiny villages; they fertile mates, raise children, coop- five books and over eighty articles get all of their food by foraging and erate with others in their social in various scientific journals. She gardening; they believe in witch- group, help their close relatives, has organized or spoken at numer- craft; and have little outside con- and resist aggression. They had to ous conferences, seminars and tact. It is similar in some ways to learn what could eat them and symposiums. the conditions in which humans what they could eat.” Cosmides Armed with a doctorate degree evolved. If you think a program is compares the mind to a personal in cognitive psychology, Cosmides universal in our species, this is a computer. “Computers have differ- interviewed at universities good place to test for its presence.” ent programs; each specialized for throughout the country. “There Although Cosmides does not solving a different problem. For ex- were many Ph.D.s and few jobs,” speak Greek, she speaks fondly of ample, Excel is well-designed for recalls Cosmides. “I was very con- her Hellenic heritage. She attributes doing spreadsheets and Word for troversial for a period of five or six much of Greek American success to writing, but the very properties years. I was interviewed for many education. Cosmides stated “Eco- that make them good at their tasks jobs, but academic selection is nomic success depends on educa- make them bad at others — you based on group consensus, and my tion. And among Greeks at all levels would not want to write articles in taking an evolutionary approach of society, education is valued.” Excel or do spreadsheets in Word.” would always enrage at least one Cosmides views the future of While defining the topic of her or two people.” She continued: the “omogenia” as a challenging thesis at Harvard, Cosmides en- “My not being hired right away time. She remembers: “At my par- countered challenges. “Nobody in turned out to be good for the field. ents’ church in Bethesda, everyone my department was evolutionary. In academic departments, the one had a Greek name. Now, at the Nobody knew what it would look talk everyone shows up for is a job Greek church in Santa Barbara, a like to take an evolutionary ap- talk. So the fact that I was giving minority have Greek names.” She proach to cognition. I had to ex- job talks all over the country meant continues: “It’s going to be hard for plain what the evolutionary ap- many more people were hearing the Greek community to maintain proach was and why it was impor- about evolutionary psychology an identity. I’m not saying it tant.” Some twenty years later, the than would have if I had been shouldn’t. But it is going to be diffi- list of honors and awards that Cos- hired right away!” COURTESY OF LEDA COSMIDES cult as the community becomes mides has achieved illustrates the One university was not afraid of Dr. Leda Cosmides and her husband, Dr. John Tooby, are with their less and less ethnically Greek.” success she has had in advocating evolutionary psychology, the Uni- daughter, Nike Tooby Cosmides, in Kyoto, Japan during the Human this new approach. versity of California at Santa Bar- Behavior and Evolution Society meetings, June, 2008. Continued on page 23 16 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Menas Kafatos: Solving the Labyrinth

By Mark Lardas He cites his family as the major a decision that changed his life. “I Special to The National Herald influences in his life. “My father, was always able to draw and paint. Kostas Kafatos, always encouraged For many years, my immediate Menas me to seek my full potential, work family thought I would go into art. Kafatos is a hard and spread good around me.” When I was 14, I asked to talk to man who His father, a senior civil servant, my dad and told him that I had looks for worked for the Ministry of Agricul- made a decision to study astrono- connections. ture. He was as much a scientist as my. He, as always, encouraged me ForDr. him, the world consists of a se- a bureaucrat. In the United States, with my decision and told me he ries of puzzles to be solved. He has Kafatos’ father would be described would support me in that deci- worked to solve the mysteries asso- as a county agricultural agent, ad- sion.” ciated with the physics of black vising farmers on crop cultivation Kafatos graduated from a top holes, structure of information, and agricultural science. Kostas’ Iraklion high school in 1965 and philosophy of physics and myster- territory covered the entire island, came to the United States to fur- ies of the global environment. however, and before he retired he ther his education. He received a It is the interconnections be- had become the agricultural in- B.S. in physics from Cornell, one of tween things that most fascinates spector general for Crete. the most technical of the Ivy him. It is almost as if he is finding What impressed Kafatos the League colleges. From there, he the path through a maze -- a scien- most about his father? “His hon- was off to MIT for postgraduate tific version of the Labyrinth. esty. Back then, government work- studies, where he earned a Ph.D. in It may be due to his heritage. ers had a reputation for corruption. physics. Kafatos, born in 1945, grew up in Not my father. He never took Along the way, he met and mar- post-war Crete. The Kafatos family bribes. Money was tight when I ried his first wife. The marriage has been in Crete a long time, al- grew up, but he taught me the val- eventually fell apart, but not before though perhaps not since the time ue of hard work and honesty.” producing three sons. Now grown, of Minos. Menas Kafatos is proud Another major influence was watching them as adults gives of his heritage. “It is not a common Uncle George Xiroudakis, a mathe- Menas Kafatos greater satisfaction name, but we are one of the oldest matician. “My uncle instilled in me than his many professional accom- families in Crete,” he states. fascination with mathematics and plishments. “None of them fol- His family has an uncommon the sciences.” lowed me into the sciences. My ability for producing scientists. His He also credits his brothers and oldest son Lefteris is a translator oldest brother, Fotis, is now an in- mother with shaping him. “My two and language tutor in California, ternationally renowned biologist, older brothers, Anthony and Fotis, fluent in Japanese and with good and a cousin, Anthony Kafatos is always protected me and guided mastering of Greek. My second son known for his work in nutrition in me. And last but not least, my Stefanos is a cinematographer and Greece and the United States. mother Eleni, who showed me the photography executive director of At a time when Crete was large- value of good family, the greatness television programs. My youngest ly rural, Kafatos lived in Iraklion, of tradition and values, and the im- one Alexios is in retailing.” Crete’s largest city. He has fond portance of loving people around After receiving his doctorate in memories of those days. “We were us.” 1972, he moved to University of PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MENAS KAFATOS a closely knit family.” In his early teens, Kafatos made Colorado, Boulder, to do post-doc- Dr. Menas Kafatos is vice chancellor for special projects; director, torate work in astrophysics. After a Center of Excellence in Applied, Computational and Fundamental year there, he went to NASA’s God- Science; and professor, Department of Physics, Computational Sci- dard Space Flight Center in Green- ence and Engineering at Schmid College of Science at Chapman Uni- belt Maryland, where he pursued versity, Orange, CA. research for two years on a Nation- al Research Council fellowship. them attempted to reunite the two is physics. It also underlies all sci- In 1975 he became an assistant ancient disciplines. Their efforts entific exploration. Kafatos became professor in physics at George Ma- culminated in two books: “The aware of the importance of info- son University, where he spent the Non-Local Universe: The New matics as a result of his work in as- next 33 years. At the time, he was Physics and Matters of the Mind” in trophysics. studying physics associated with 1990 and “The Conscious Uni- Kafatos helped found the Insti- black holes – gravitational singu- verse: Parts and Wholes in Physical tute of Computational Sciences larities caused by the collapse of Reality” in 1999. and Informatics at George Mason stars. Much of his early work ex- The result was intriguing and to study computational science panded our knowledge of the surprising. Some critics called the which focuses on modeling and processes within some of the concepts presented Zen-like. Per- simulations and infomatics. The In- strangest points in our universe. haps a more fitting analogy would stitute, which later became the At George Mason Kafatos really be Platonic. It was a 20th century School of Computational Sciences, demonstrated his aptitude at inter- version of Plato’s allegory of the developed an international reputa- disciplinary science. Refusing to be cave. tion, attracting students from pigeonholed in astronomy and as- Infomatics also captured his at- around the world. Kafatos served trophysics, he began branching tention. Infomatics is the study of as dean of that school from 2002 Menas Kafatos has deep roots in Crete. This is a photo of the Kafatos out. the science of information and da- through 2006. family in Rethymnon, Crete, around 1910. In the back row are In the 1990s, Kafatos collabo- ta, including information process- Kafatos moved further still from Kafatos’ uncles and aunts: (left to right) Despina, George, Athena rated with another professor at ing, large data set analysis and en- astrophysics, into space and Earth and Nicholas. In the front row: (left to right) are his maternal grand- George Mason, Dr. Robert Nadeau, gineering of information systems. observations in general, when he mother Chrysi, father Constantine (standing), paternal grandfather to work out a general philosophy The ability to process information, helped found the Center for Earth Anthony, paternal grandmother, Heraclea, and aunt Evangelista (on of physics. Nadeau was a philoso- to organize facts and obtain rela- Observation and Space Research grandmother’s knee). pher, not a physicist. The two of tionships between things is critical (CEOSR) in 1995 within the THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 17

Since then he has focused on of the future in science, an umbrel- ways seeking my parental advice Earth observation, researching the la that ties different scientific fields and guidance. And working with so connections between regional haz- together. many students and seeing them ards and climate change. Today he TNH: It is unusual for scien- complete their studies. At the end, spends much of his time on this tists to write books for a broad au- when they graduate, when they topic, speaking about environmen- dience. You have done this several shake my hand or embrace me and tal issues throughout the world. times. Why, and to what do you at- telling me. “Thank you for every- “People talk about global warm- tribute your talents in communica- thing.” In both cases, it is the great ing,” Kafatos states, “but what they tions? feeling of guiding and loving the do not realize is that the effects are MK: Maybe it is due to my artis- next generation. I guess the father felt locally.” He is one of the most tic bend. I love books, and I love to in me shows through in both these influential internationally known write. Maybe it is the challenge of aspects. voices on the impacts of global cli- doing what most scientists cannot TNH: If you were just beginning mate change. (or more likely will not) do. But I your higher education, back in the He has added a new interest in think it is the inner need to do and 1960s, would you choose a differ- his study of natural hazards: earth- spread good around me, what my ent path? Explain your choice. quakes. “Obviously, earthquakes are not caused by climate change,” Kafatos says, “but the impact of an earthquake can be just as devastat- ing as a major forest fire or hurri- cane.” To further this new ambition Kafatos has taken a new position, at Chapman University in Orange, California, where he will pursue in- ternational collaborations, build- ing computational science and pro- jects on global change. He will be the vice chancellor for special pro- jects as well as director of the Chapman's new Center for Excel- lence in Applied, Computational and Fundamental Science. He an- ticipates working closely with Cali- Menas Kafatos is with his family in 1950. In the back row are his fornia agencies and private donors brother Fotis, cousin George Mamangakis, and his brother Antonis. to pursue work that is environmen- Menas stands in the middle of his mother Eleni and father Kostas. tally important to society. His personal life took a renewed School of Computational Sciences. ducts research to enhance our un- turn when he married his second Using satellites observations of the derstanding of Earth, its atmos- wife, Susan Yang, in 2006. A native Earth, and combining the data phere, and space immediately Korean and a scientist herself, an gathered from orbital sensors with around the Earth. It focuses inter- expert in neuroscience and compu- earth systems, information tech- disciplinary sciences on the study tational biosciences, she is now nologies, and innovative computa- of the Earth. Kafatos serves as the employed at Chapman University tional algorithm, the Center con- first director of CEOSR. and will lead international rela- tionships in the sciences. Together, they have found appreciation of each other’s native country, Greece Menas Kafatos poses with his brothers in Greece in the 1950s. Fotis and South Korea, and their extend- (back), professor at Imperial College in London, is an internationally ed families, while living in their renowned biologist. Antonis (right), a civil servant and businessman, adopted country, the United States. lives in Athens. He says, “My two older brothers, Anthony and Fotis, al- The National Herald asked ways protected me and guided me.” Kafatos several questions. TNH: Your professional inter- dad taught me from early on. MK: Probably not. But there is ests include astrophysics, Earth ob- Remember what I said about that little nagging question in my servation and computers. They challenges. I always felt that it is heart "what if I had pursued art seem loosely linked. How did you not the fault of the non-specialists rather than science?” get involved in so many different or the public if scientists cannot TNH: If you were given a time technical areas? communicate their work to them. machine and could visit any three MK: Remember, I always seek The challenge remains with the sci- people in history for an evening, new challenges. One thing that al- entists: We are the ones who who would they be? What would ways bothered me was the tenden- should be able to communicate you talk about? cy of many scientists to stick with what we are doing. We owe it to MK: Jesus Christ, Plato and Ne- one field and just work in, and society, which provides the support fertiti. With Jesus, I would ask him eventually even die in it! I wanted that allows us to pursue our profes- to give me the experience of un- to find the common elements in sion. Even though English is not conditional love. I would ask him different scientific fields. To prove my mother tongue, I set out to about his teachings and his disci- to myself, my own satisfaction, that prove that a scientist can indeed, ples. With Plato, I would ask him I could excel in more than one and should, communicate with the about his teacher, Socrates. I field. Even though I had achieved public. would ask him about Timaeus and certain name in astrophysics, par- TNH: Which of your accom- to summarize for me his philoso- ticularly in black hole astrophysics, plishments left you with the great- phy. I would ask Nefertiti to talk to I started working in earth system est sense of satisfaction and pride? me about royal life in ancient science, and soon enough I Why? Egypt and what it was like to be a Dr. Menas Kafatos remarried in 2006. His wife, Dr. Susan Yang, is a achieved a name in that field as MK: Two accomplishments, and woman in Egypt. noted neurologist. He is pictured here at the wedding in Athens. His well. As for computational science, they are related: Seeing my three sons Lefteris and Stefanos acted as best men. I developed it because it is the way sons grow and become men, but al- Continued on page 23 18 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Hellenic Medical Society of New York: Taking the Pulse of a Vibrant Future

By Antonia Callas Scholarship which is presented at Special to The National Herald the annual Papanicolaou sympo- sium. has been said that physi- The scholarships are given at the cians, by nature, are Annual Scholarship Weekend Cele- committed to lifelong bration held in December. This learning and the study year’s 72nd annual celebration will of medicine is an en- be held over the weekend of De- Itdeavor that could fascinate and con- cember 5th & 6th. The festivities be- sume several lifetimes. Physicians of gin with a Friday evening cocktail Greek ancestry, who have the rich- reception, scientific exhibits, a two- ness of Hellenic heritage as part of hour scientific symposium and the their inheritance, often feel obligat- presentation of the HMS Scholar- ed to strive harder, be better and ship and Awards to the recipients. give of themselves generously. The On Saturday evening, HMS will idea logically presents itself as a hold a Gala Dinner Dance at the continuum from Hippocrates ideals Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Cen- exemplifying a compassionate and ter honoring distinguished Hel- humanitarian medical practice. lenes. The honorees for 2008 are as The Hellenic Medical Society of follows: Distinguished Physician: New York is a striking personifica- Christopher J. Logothetis, M.D., tion of these ideals. Its works of in- professor and chair, Genitourinary volvement, outreach and advance- Medical Oncology Center and direc- ment, not just for those on the East tor, Genitourinary Program, Univer- coast, but for the Greek Diaspora sity of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer worldwide are exemplary. HMS has Center, Houston, Texas; Distin- diligently evolved since its inception guished Hellene: Antonios A. Dia- as a local fraternity into a global, mataris, publisher/editor, The Na- multi-directional society engaged in tional Herald; Esteemed Colleague: advocating for positive change in John Kampessis, M.D. contemporary health care issues, COURTESY OF HELLENIC PRINTING The scholarships have another thus ensuring a robust future for Many Hellenic Medical Society members were present to march in the 77th annual Greek Independence important function. They are a way Hellenic leadership in medicine. Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, New York, April 2008. They included: Drs. Karides, Bournias, Koutras, to energize the community and in- The Hellenic Medical Society’s Carayannopoulos, Cosmatos, Dangas, Josifidis (back), Xethalis, Voudouris, Tsioulias (back), Chrisomalis- spire medical students to start Med- genesis began in the First World Valasiadis, Ms. Aslanis, and Dr. Kossidas. ical Societies in their own cities up- War. It is fitting that the society was on graduation. “Most societies out- co-founded by the renowned physi- tangled vines of the many Greek or- and energetic man explains, “Still, is granted to medical students from side of New York were started by cian Dr. George N. Papanicolaou, ganizations that have germinated, we realized something had to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut students that have received scholar- who, as Dr. Katherine Hajjar, chair- grown and flowered over the years, change, we needed a bigger objec- and Pennsylvania; the Leonidas ships and liked the idea of HMS,” man of the Department of Cell and the Intercollegiate Club itself tive.” The idea of creating a scholar- Lantzounis Research Grant, award- says Petratos. Developmental Biology at Weill changed its name in 1945 to the ship was conceived. The group ed to students for research in the Hellenic Medical Societies in Medical College states, “was very Hellenic University Club of New wanted something that could carry biomedical sciences; the Michael cities across the United States oper- familiar with medicine as an en- York, the name by which it is the society through the future and Mulinos Postgraduate Award, ate under the umbrella of Federa- deavor of the mind and heart.” presently known. create a permanent and lasting awarded to postgraduate students; tion of Hellenic Medical Societies. The group was officially regis- At first, HMS planned on creat- legacy. Petratos chuckles in recollec- and the Christ Bozes High School They include: Chicago/Midwest, tered in 1920 as the Greek-Ameri- ing a network of Greek American tion; “The first year we awarded Medical Essay Prize, which awards Los Angeles, Boston, New Jersey, can Medical Fraternity. In 1924, the physicians and assisting in the two scholarships, each for $500! We $500 grants to high-school students Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Fraternity changed its name to the preservation of public health in con- are currently awarding 30 to 40 a from across the United States who Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Greek-American Intercollegiate junction with other medical soci- year, so we’ve come a long way.” are planning on going into medi- Quebec. There are currently initia- Club and under this rubric, broad- eties. However, time, change, and Currently HMS Scholarship cine. tives underway to form Societies in ened its scope. the Second World War saw mem- Funds grant valuable financial and In addition, there are named South Carolina, New Mexico and A little over a decade later, under bership dwindle. By the mid-1960s, medical resources to talented stu- funds and scholarships in honor of Houston. However, the New York the leadership of Dr. Polybios Coryl- the organization had about 20 dents and physicians. The scholar- physicians and colleagues: The An- Society is the most active and far- loss, members of the Greek-Ameri- members, and its activities were pri- ships provide the very important gelakos-Gabriel Memorial Scholar- reaching of any in existence. can Intercollegiate Club broke off to marily social. function of strengthening the ethnic ship, the Theodore and Evelyn When HMS was first formed, it form a separate organization com- Then, in 1967, HMS began to re- and cultural bonds of Greek her- Chengelis Memorial Scholarship, was mainly comprised of medical prised only of Greek-American purpose itself. Galvanized under the itage. HMS awards approximately the Polybios N. Corylloss Memorial graduates from Greece who came to physicians. Called the Hellenic leadership of president, Dr. Theofi- $50,000 in scholarships each year. Scholarship, the Flessas Memorial the United States and stayed on. As Medical Society of New York, its los Deliyanides, the organization At this time, scholarships are grant- Scholarship, the Anthony and Joyce the society has grown and immigra- original purpose included cultivat- rewrote its constitution, recruited ed to American students of Hellenic Kales Scholarship, the Lignos Schol- tion slowed considerably, it now at- ing fraternal relationships among its new members and saw the begin- descent but HMS has granted sever- arship, the Nicholas Memorial tracts many Greek American stu- members and assisting in the ning of fundraising events for the al international scholarships as well Scholarship, the Kotsilimbas Memo- dents who are graduates of Ameri- preservation of public health in con- educational of Greek physicians. and may possibly increase that rial Scholarship, the Stefanides can universities. Membership is junction with other medical soci- HMS has not looked back since. number in the future. Scholarship, the Vardopoulos Schol- younger as well and as 50 percent eties. Dr. Marinos Petratos, president The awards include the HMS arship, the A. Vasilas Scholarship of medical students are now female, If one wishes to sort through the from 1975 to 1977, a gregarious Medical Student Scholarship, which and the HMS/Cornell Papanicolaou the number of women members has THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 19 also grown. events, ideas and people. Currently, there are about 300 The Founding Forum of the active members of HMS in New Global Hellenic Medical Network York although there are about 1,000 was initiated by Greece’s Health physicians on the Society’s mailing and Social Solidarity Ministry and list. HMS has made great strides in was held on the island of Kos, in unifying the Greek American physi- 2006. It was organized in coopera- cians in the New York metropolitan tion with the Hellenic Medical Soci- area and neighboring states and in ety of New York, the Federation of accomplishing its community goals. Hellenic Medical Societies of North Under the dynamic leadership America and the Hellenic Academy Dr. George P. Dangas, who has of Medical Training, based in served two terms as president over Athens. Representatives of medical the past four years and whose cur- associations or working groups rent term will expire at the end of from four continents were present 2008, HMS has developed a robust and over 200 attendees acted to- calendar of events and activities. wards a declaration of common in- Dangas feels that multi-direc- terests and missions. tional events and social activities This past September, HMS was enhance the image of HMS across pleased to participate in the bienni- the entire Omogeneia. “We try to al World Hellenic Biomedical Asso- have visibility in various areas – we ciation (WHBA) symposium, held in understand that members of society Cyprus. WHBA’s goal is to bring to- will participate in other Omogeneia gether global Hellenism in the areas functions, but we try to give a differ- of medicine and biomedical engi- ent dimension in our society.” neering. HMS has been quite successful at The Global Hellenic Medical Net- creating dynamic connections both work also held their conference in in the United States and abroad. On conjunction with the WHBA, where the home front, they have estab- COURTESY OF HELLENIC PRINTING their participation was most wel- lished broad and consistent collabo- In 1997, a tree was brought from the island of Kos by Dr. Anthony Vasilas and was planted at New York- come. rations with other Greek associa- Presbyterian Hospital of Cornell University in honor of Dr. George Papanicolaou. It replaced the one de- Dangas has also worked diligent- tions that include the national stroyed during a previous expansion program of the hospital. In 1920, Dr. Papanicolaou was the first ly to expand interaction with the Greek holidays, social events and president of The Hellenic Medical Society of New York (then known as the Greek-American Medical Fra- Greek medical community. He trav- academic lectures held at diverse lo- ternity). He became renowned for the development of the Pap test, a method of detecting cervical cancer. els to Europe frequently, meeting cations. with various groups such as the By expanding their outreach ef- for specialty training. HMS serves as health and growth. Perhaps most vi- medical associations, and its mis- Central Health Council in Athens forts through joint efforts, HMS is a resource; we can refer questions sionary and far-reaching in scope is sion is strictly medical, although (KESY), the dean and vice-dean of attracting a larger and diverse audi- and help them in many ways.” Dangas’ establishment of the Global complementary to, World Hellenic Athens Medical School, the MIT and ence while providing a richer oppor- HMS also perceptively under- Hellenic Medical Network, of which Biomedical Association goals. Using Stanford alumni clubs in Athens, tunity for the entire Greek commu- stands that in this day and age, ex- he serves as president. The Network the Internet as a tool of communica- and the president of the WHBZ, nity to participate in their shared panding their global presence is was established as a global resource tion, the Global Network connects Gabriel Panayi, in London. heritage. necessary to ensure organizational to connect different international and coordinates medical global Dangas has established strong Academically, HMS holds a pop- ties to Minister of Health Dimitris ular series of both monthly and Avramopoulos, who, in turn, has re- yearly lectures to educate and in- peatedly visited HMS in New York form. Popular yearly lectures in- and actively supported the organi- clude the Flessas Lecture, which is zation with a monetary grant from held in association with Hellenic the Greek government – a first for Link, the Kotsilimbas Lecture, and any professional society abroad. the Annual George Papanicolaou This past summer, the Greek Symposium, which is sponsored by Ministry of Health invited HMS and Hellenic Medical Society of New the Global Hellenic Medical Net- York, Weill Cornell Medical College work to participate in the “pre- of Cornell University, the Federation Olympiad” conference in Beijing, of Hellenic Societies of Greater New China. A three-member delegation York, and the Panevoikos Society. attended and participated with the HMS has even dipped a prover- Greek and Chinese Health Min- bial toe into the publishing world istries. with the recent publication and Whether working on naming a translation of the biography, section of a street at Cornell Med- “George Papanicolaou, M.D., Ph.D.: ical College, “Dr. George Papanico- Life and Career, the Way to the Pap laou Way,” or connecting the Hel- Test,” originally written in Greek by lenic medical profession on a world Dr. Anthony Vasilas. stage, HMS has proven it is far- Connecting with Greece has al- sighted and diligent in creating a ways been part of HMS’s mission. In strong foundation that will build the past, medical equipment, sup- long-lasting roads to the future. plies and books were sent on a regu- lar basis to Albania and Greece. Antonia Callas is a freelance Now however, the connection has writer based in Chicago. Her developed considerably on both TNH ARCHIVES work has appeared in a variety of sides. Dangas explains. “We work Greek Health Minister Demetris Avramopoulos (left) presents Hellenic Medical Society of New York pres- Hellenic newspapers and maga- with the Consul to help patients ident, Dr. George Dangas, with a likeness of Hygeia, the ancient Greek goddess of health at HMS's 70th zines throughout the country. She who come from Greece. We also Annual Scholarship Gala held on December 2, 2006. Avramopoulos affirmed the Greek Government’s is currently attending DePaul Uni- have active programs to help med- commitment to the development of joint initiatives to help bring the Hellenic American medical commu- versity and will receive her Bach- ical doctors who come from Greece nity closer to Greece and Greeks living abroad. elor of Arts in 2009. 20 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008

The Library of Life: Dr. Tom Maniatis and Molecular Genetics

By Marianthe Karanikas tics of cells affected nant DNA is produced by combin- Special to The National Herald by Lou Gehrig’s dis- ing DNA sequences that would not ease or Amyotrophic normally occur together, for exam- 1944, when Dr. Lateral Sclerosis ple a piece of human DNA can be Tom Maniatis was a (ALS). inserted into the viral DNA and year old, Dr. Os- FROM THE ROCKIES propagated in bacteria. Why do wald T. Avery, Dr. TO RECOMBINANT DNA such a thing? A major reason Colin MacLeod and “I was named after my is to isolate and study spe- Dr.In Maclyn McCarty discovered grandfather,” Maniatis said. cific genes or sequences that the gene, the basic unit of The elder Tom Maniatis emi- of DNA. Cloning genes heredity, is made of DNA or de- grated from a small village near While Wat- makes it possible for oxyribonucleic acid. In 1953, when Tripoli, worked in Chicago, and set- son, Crick and others began to scientists to purify Maniatis was 10 years old, Dr. tled in Denver where he owned and build the new science of molecu- and make many James D. Watson and Sir Francis managed a restaurant. His son Pete lar genetics, Maniatis camped, copies of Crick discovered the “secret of life,” helped out in his father’s restau- fished, and hiked with his parents that is, the structure of DNA or the rant, served in the U.S. Navy in the and his sister Carol in the Rocky double helix. The double helical South Pacific during World War II, Mountains near his Denver home. structure allowed Watson and Crick and was a career fireman with the An athletic youth, he ran track in to propose a model for how genes Denver Fire Department. Pete mar- high school. Until his senior year, are replicated and passed onto sub- ried Jane, a Missourian of Irish de- Maniatis did not entertain academ- sequent generations, and how the scent who had moved to Denver. ic aspirations. Nobody in his family information encoded in DNA can be While Pete fought fires, Jane man- had gone to college. Then Maniatis graduated in translated into proteins. At that aged the household. took chemistry. 1971. At Vanderbilt, he studied time, Pete and Jane Maniatis knew “I had a great teacher,” Maniatis more details about the structure of nothing of such matters. Nor did said. DNA. Maniatis then carried out they know their young son would This teacher inspired him to pur- postdoctoral studies at Harvard one day work alongside Watson, sue the study of chemistry at the University and at the Medical Re- Crick, and other molecular biolo- University of Colorado at Boulder. search Council of Molecular Biolo- gists to discover secrets that would However, when Maniatis took or- gy in Cambridge, England. At Har- lead to major medical advances. ganic chemistry, he became inter- vard, he worked with Dr. Mark specific Maniatis and his research team ested in biology as well. Ptashne on how proteins bind DNA genes. Recall were the first to isolate a human At Boulder, the biologists Dr. during gene regulation in a virus that the lambda gene, specifically the human hemo- Joseph Daniel introduced him to called bacteriophage lambda. At phage DNA makes many copies of globin gene. This research ap- molecular biology and molecular ge- the MRC, he worked with Dr. Fred itself inside the bacterial host. proach helped scientists pinpoint netics. Molecular biology is the Sanger on determining a sequence When scientists insert a gene into the specific genetic mutations that study of life processes at the molecu- of DNA in a regulatory region of the the lambda phage, they can then cause thalassemia, an anemia lar level while molecular genetics fo- viral DNA. use the phage’s ability to replicate prevalent in Greece and parts of cuses on the structure and function What is the lambda bacterio- to make many copies of the insert- Italy. Maniatis’ lab went on to pro- of genes. Biologically important phage and why is it important? ed gene for detailed studies. Why duce the first “library” of human molecules include proteins like he- Lambda “phage” is a virus that in- make these copies or clones? One genes. Subsequently, researchers moglobin and insulin and nucleic fects E. coli bacteria. Lambda phage important use of the cloning of spe- used these molecular approaches to acids like DNA and RNA. Proteins has a head and tail made of pro- cific genes is in gene therapy, where identify the genetic basis of many are the workhorses of the body teins, and the DNA is tightly packed genes are inserted into the cells and other diseases. Maniatis’ contribu- while DNA and RNA provide the ge- inside. Through its tail, the phage tissues to treat disease. tions did not stop there. He co-au- netic blueprints for how proteins are injects its DNA into a bacterium. Following his postdoctoral work thored a manual on recombinant made. Complex molecular processes The phage replicates its DNA, de- at Harvard and the MRC, Maniatis DNA technology that has trained transcribe the DNA of the genes into grades the E. coli DNA, and takes became a senior staff investigator generations of students throughout messenger RNAs, which, in turn, are over the cellular machinery of the at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory the world. In addition to his acade- translated to make proteins. bacterium in order to produce as in New York at the invitation of Dr. mic research, Maniatis co-founded Maniatis graduated from the many phage particles as possible. James D. Watson. Here Maniatis three biotechnology companies, KRIS SNIBBE/HARVARD NEWS OFFICE University of Colorado in 1965 with Lambda phage has been used wide- and his coworkers developed a new which produced several FDA-ap- In addition to his academic re- a dual major in chemistry and biol- ly as a model organism to study method of cloning, which begins proved drugs. Recently, the untime- search, Dr. Tom Maniatis co- ogy. He also received an M.A. in bi- gene regulation and protein-DNA with RNA instead of DNA. Recall ly death of his sister Carol drove founded three biotechnology ology in 1967. He then entered a interactions. It has also been used that DNA is transcribed into RNA Maniatis and his collaborators to companies, which produced sev- doctoral program in molecular biol- to clone recombinant DNA. and then translated into protein. uncover startling new characteris- eral FDA-approved drugs. ogy at Vanderbilt University and What does that mean? Recombi- Maniatis and his lab converted RNA THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 21 transcripts back into DNA and then molecules, which regulate gene ex- made copies or clones of this com- pression. Silas Maniatis is working plementary DNA or cDNA. Mani- with Dr. Sam Kunes whose re- atis’ lab used this method to obtain search focuses on the development the cDNA of the RNA that encodes and function of the nervous sys- hemoglobin. This cDNA cloning tem. method allowed scientists to pro- Maniatis’ passion for research duce RNA transcripts of any gene. unites with love for his family. His It also helped scientists pinpoint only sister, Carol, died in 1998 the genetic mutations that cause from ALS. Soon afterward, Mani- thalassemia, a disease caused by atis was asked to help find a cure mutations in the gene encoding he- for this usually fatal, neurodegen- moglobin. erative disease. From Cold Spring Harbor, Mani- When most people are asked to atis moved to the California Insti- help find a medical cure, they do- tute of Technology where he and nate money, certainly a valuable his lab worked on cloning the DNA gift. Maniatis, however, went a of genes rather than the RNA tran- step beyond. Together with scien- scripts. Here they produced the tists at Harvard and Columbia, Ma- first “library” of human genes, a niatis discovered a major break- major advance in gene research. through in ALS research. Using this library, scientists were A REMARKABLE TRIBUTE able to isolate virtually any human ALS is caused by the degenera- gene. This “library” approach was tion of motor neurons, the nerve instrumental in the human genome cells that control the voluntary project, which later led to the de- movement of the muscles. termination of the sequence of the “It’s very exciting,” Maniatis entire human genome. said. “We’re using stem cells to In 1981, Maniatis returned to study the development of the dis- Harvard as professor of biochem- ease.” istry and molecular biology. He Some background is necessary served as department chairman to understand the significance of from 1985 to 1988. He is currently Maniatis’ findings. First, remember the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of that neurons or nerve cells in the Molecular and Cellular Biology. central nervous system are sup- FROM GENE LIBRARIES TO ported by cells called glia, from the BIOTECHNOLOGY KRIS SNIBBE/HARVARD NEWS OFFICE Greek word for “glue.” Glial cells Putting gene libraries to work, Dr. Tom Maniatis is the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular also provide neurons with nutri- Maniatis co-founded three biotech- and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. Maniatis and his research ents. The glia outnumber neurons nology companies: Genetics Insti- team were the first to isolate a human gene, specifically the human by about 10 to 1. Maniatis’ lab is tute in 1980, ProScript Pharma in hemoglobin gene. This research approach helped scientists pinpoint focusing on the role of astroglia in 1997 and Accelron Pharma in the specific genetic mutations that cause thalassemia, an anemia the development of ALS. Astroglia 2004. prevalent in Greece and parts of Italy. Maniatis’ lab went on to pro- are just what their name suggests: Genetics Institute produced sev- duce the first “library” of human genes. Recently, the untimely death star-shaped glial cells that support eral FDA-approved drugs and was of his sister Carol drove Maniatis and his collaborators to uncover motor neurons in the brain and taken over by Wyeth Pharmaceuti- startling new characteristics of cells affected by Lou Gehrig’s disease spinal cord. cals in 1994. At Genetics Institute, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Second, recall the importance of scientists were able to help people embryonic stem cells. These cells with hemophilia lead normal lives. used routinely in bone reconstruc- ness and the warmth of the Greek are pluripotent, which means they Hemophilia is a genetic disorder in tion and bone healing,” Maniatis people. can develop into any kind of cell in which critical proteins necessary told me. Like most Greeks and Greek the body. for blood clotting are not pro- At ProScript Pharma, scientists Americans, Maniatis cherishes his Using embryonic stem cells duced. Previously, these patients developed the FDA approved drug, family. His parents, Pete and Jane, from mice, Maniatis and his collab- were treated with crudely fraction- Velcade, which is used to treat mul- were married for over 65 years. orators grew mouse motor neurons ated blood products that were of- tiple myeloma, a cancer of cells in They both died in 2006. Maniatis and mouse astroglia that were af- ten contaminated with viruses, the bone marrow that produce an- enjoys spending time with his two flicted with ALS. And the re- such as HIV. Thus, many hemophil- tibodies. Velcade can help prolong sons, Ethan and Silas, from his first searchers discovered a most shock- ia patients contracted AIDS. Be- the lives of these cancer patients by marriage to Jessie Klyce. ing secret: the diseased astroglia cause the clotting factors are pre- slowing the spread of the cancer. Ethan lives in Belmont, Massa- secrete a toxic factor that kills both sent in such small amounts in hu- “At a charity event, a woman chusetts. A Harvard graduate, he is healthy and diseased motor neu- man blood, it was not possible to thanked us for giving her father currently a pilot for Jet Blue Air- rons. The scientists are now work- obtain pure proteins. four more years of life with Vel- lines. “I find it interesting that my ing to identify this toxic factor. To solve this problem the Genet- cade,” Maniatis said. “It’s very grat- son Ethan is a pilot,” Maniatis said. “We’ve opened up a new direc- ics Institute scientists cloned the ifying to help people.” “Perhaps it has something to do tion in ALS research,” Maniatis genes encoding the clotting factors ProScript Pharma was taken with our Greek heritage. A dispro- said. and then reinserted them into spe- over by Millennium Pharmaceuti- portionately high number of This research is a remarkable cially designed cells that could be cals in 2001. Acceleron Pharma, Greeks from the Mani go into the tribute. What better way for a used to produce the clotting factors meanwhile, remains a privately Greek air force.” brother to honor the memory of his in large amounts in the laboratory,” held biotechnology company de- Silas lives in Cambridge, Massa- sister? Maniatis and his colleagues Maniatis told a reporter from The veloping drugs for the treatment of chusetts. He graduated from New may help pave the way toward a Harvard Gazette. “Thus, highly-pu- diseases of the bone and muscle. York University and is currently a cure for ALS. rified clotting factors could be THE POWER OF FAMILY Ph.D. student in molecular and cel- made from a source free of any in- HERITAGE lular biology at Harvard University. Dr. Marianthe Karanikas teaches fectious agents.” Maniatis has visited Greece sev- “Silas is studying the role of mi- scientific and technical writing “Scientists at the Genetics Insti- eral times, once to receive an hon- croRNAs in learning,” Maniatis at Missouri State University tute also discovered a bone mor- orary doctorate from the Universi- said. where she is associate professor phogenetic protein, which is now ty of Athens. He loves the friendli- MicroRNAs are very short RNA of English. 22 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Stamatios Krimigis: Argus of the Space Age

Continued from page 5 payoff that demonstrated low cost would you go? missions were possible. SK: Jupiter is my favorite plan- TNH: Which of your accom- TNH: How do you feel your et. It has the right name. It is the plishments left you with the great- Greek heritage has affected your king of planets. There is terrific est sense of satisfaction and pride? life? scenery there, both in Jupiter’s at- SK: My work on the Voyager SK: Through its emphasis on mosphere and on the moons of missions. It was the premier scien- achievement and the pride of pursu- Jupiter. On Io there are always 10 tific space mission of the 20th cen- ing excellence. I remember reading to 15 volcanoes erupting. Europa tury. Voyager visited four planets the oration of Percales in Thucy- has an icy surface. God alone and is now in interstellar space. I dides’ History of the Peloponnesian knows what materials are under have been working in it for 40 War. He talked about the pursuit of that ice crust. years, and am still getting data and excellence. When I read that, I If I could go anywhere, I would writing papers about the science. I thought I had to pursue excellence. take a trip there and walk around could not ask for anything better. The space frontier opening up was a on its moons. Jupiter’s high radia- With all the discoveries, it was just terrific opportunity to push bound- tion would make it impossible to fantastic. aries and explore new things. I really do that. You would get TNH: What was the biggest wanted to do the best possible that I cooked in six hours. It is fun to do challenge you ever faced, and how was capable of. it in my imagination. did you meet it? A sense of history is another ele- TNH: If you could not be a sci- SK: It was when I was a scientif- ment of being Greek. I felt I had a entist, what would you be? ic manager, rather than as a scien- special responsibility to pursue SK: I became friends with Van- tist, during the NEAR mission to things with a long-lasting impact. gelis Papathanassiou at one point, the asteroid Eros. We got it to Eros, TNH: What is the best part the composer that wrote the score maneuvered to orbit Eros, and lost about being American? for the movie “Chariots of Fire.” I the signal after doing the maneu- SK: America makes it possible was fascinated by the way he was ver. It disappeared for 26 hours. for people of determination and inspired by music, playing the com- People were still skeptical about talent to succeed. Meritocracy is positions in his mind. I sometimes cheap planetary missions. We what is practiced and what makes wonder what it would be like to be needed the mission to succeed. it great. Its democracy and democ- a composer. It was really a challenge, but we ratic values are also special, the TNH: What advice would you recovered the spacecraft. There process by which we choose lead- offer anyone starting out in life to- PEG SKORPINSKI was a subtle software problem ers. Leaders have to demonstrate day – people in their late teens? Dr. Christos Papadimitriou is C. Lester Hogan Professor of Computer communicating between the atti- why they should be our leaders. It SK: Do the best job possible in Science at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the tude control and the spacecraft tests their mettle. I cannot imagine whatever they decide to do as a ca- National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts computer. I could see how the pro- leaders elsewhere doing this or go- reer. Success is its own reward. It and Sciences. He is the author of many books on computational theo- gram people would become de- ing through this process. does not come unless you prepare. ry and recently published a book of essays in Greek entitled “Isovia moralized, but I kept the team go- TNH: If you could visit any- You have to work as hard as you stous xaker?” (“Life sentence to hackers?”). He is pictured here host- ing until we found a solution and where – on Earth, or in the solar can with absolute integrity and ing a reception for new students, circa 2002. recovered the satellite. It was a big system – past or present – where honor. Professor Christos Papadimitriou: Embracing the Past, Navigating the Future

Continued from page 9 story than an argument. So, I have been trying in my teaching to inject work. The other fascinating aspect some of this. I often interrupt to of this story is that the majority of tell a story, either to illustrate a the ingenious mathematicians who technical or mathematical point, or pursued this dream had painful to tell about the life of a pioneer bouts with mental illness. who brought the idea to us, and I TNH: You’ve lectured on the think these are the moments my subject of mathematics and narra- students enjoy the most. tive. What draws you to the inter- section of these disciplines? Nile Southern is a writer and CP: My love and mission in life filmmaker living in Boulder, Col- is to teach. It’s really humbling for orado. His book: “The CANDY a moment for an academic to real- Men; The Rollicking Life and ize that language may have existed Times of the Notorious Novel, for around 50,000 years, yet orga- CANDY” (Arcade, 2004), was nized education has been around awarded ‘Book of the Year’ for for only 1,000. What was happen- non-fiction, from the Colorado ing before? Well, for the longest Center for the Book. His latest period, knowledge was transmitted project is a radio series entitled COURTESY STAMATIOS KRIMIGIS through story. Storytelling was the “Greeks Out West; From Byzan- Dr. Stamatios Krimigis and his wife Dr. Maria Anastasopoulou celebrate with friends on the day of NEAR's only way of transmitting cultural tium to Bingham Canyon and Be- landing. From left to right are Dr. Richard Roca, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Di- information. That was good, be- yond,” a project which seeks ad- rector, Senator Paul Sarbanes (MD), Stamatios Krimigis, his wife Maria Anastosopoulou, his son John cause stories are sticky. You’re ditional funding. Contact: Krimigis and Peter Marudas. much more likely to remember a [email protected] THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 Greek American Scientists 23 Prof. J. Kakalios: The Fundamentals of our Universe: Superman Dr. Vaia Papadimitriou Strives to in Disguise Answer Eternal Questions

Continued from page 11 Continued from page 7 yet been found and still presents one of the most exciting next steps the human body’s operation, he re- ities, science becomes real to chil- in field. The search for the Higgs turns to our hero, stating, “Ant- dren and in many cases, more in- will soon become even more in- Man can indeed punch his way out teresting and accessible. For older tense when the large Hadron Col- of paper bag.” The author ends this children or adults interested in lider starts operations at CERN in section in a typical humorous learning more about physics, Pa- Switzerland. mode: “In this way he (Ant-Man) padimitriou also encourages read- In talking with Papadimitriou serves as a role model and inspira- ing the magazines Physics Today and preparing this article, this tion to all comic-book fans.” and Scientific American. writer was reminded of what an Kakalios serves as a role model When asked what is on the hori- amazingly intricate and complex and inspiration to me. He is a mod- zon in particle physics, Papadim- world we live in. There is such ern Superman whose powers gen- itriou noted that the race is on to depth beneath the layers of what erate from his intellect and creativ- find the Higgs boson as well as to we see. It is humbling and awe-in- ity. He says, “If the study of the nat- search for other new particles and spiring. This writer is grateful to ural world has demonstrated any- resonances expected or unexpect- Papadimitriou and to all like her thing, it is that, unlike the Hulk, ed (dark matter particles, super- who push the frontiers of science the smarter we get, the stronger symmetric particles, extra dimen- to deepen our understanding of the we become …. It is our intelligence sions, etc.). The Higgs boson is the origins of our universe, and in do- that provides the competitive ad- particle that has eluded physicists ing so, create technologies that en- vantage that enabled us to become for a generation and according to hance and advance our lives. the dominant species on the plan- the Standard Model of understand- et. It is our intelligence that is our ing physics, it endows elementary Penelope Petropoul graduated superpower.” particles in the universe with mass. with a bachelor’s degree in histo- Finding it could unlock knowledge ry from the University of Chica- Dr. Elaine Thomopoulos writes of new realms of nature. In August, go. She works in alumni rela- about the Greek American expe- Fermilab reported that it came one tions at the university and enjoys rience. She is curator of the ex- step closer to understanding the traveling, writing and entertain- hibit, “The Greeks of Berrien nature of the Higgs, but it has not ing family and friends. County, Michigan,” now on per- JONATHAN CHAPMAN PHOTOGRAPH, FIGURES IN PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY MARVEL COMICS manent display at the Annuncia- Comic books helped shaped Dr. James Kakalios’ interest in science. tion and St. Paraskevi Greek Or- He says, “There is an indoctrination in the sciences. The spirit. There thodox Church in New Buffalo, is a high emphasis in knowing the rules of the game, creative prob- Michigan. lem solving, out-thinking the bad guys.”

Dr. Leda Menas Kafatos: Cosmides Solving the Labyrinth Continued from page 15 Continued from page 17 THN: Any hobbies or passions Cosmides and her husband outside your work? John Tooby, reside in Santa Bar- TNH: How do you feel your MK: Reading books, swimming, bara, California. They have one Greek heritage has affected your skiing and listening to music. daughter, Nike Tooby Cosmides, life? TNH: If you could not be a pro- named after Winged Victory, the MK: It is so much of who I am. I fessor or a scientist, what would Titan who helped Athena win her am not just proud of my heritage, you be? battles. Early on, Cosmides and in a deep way, but I continue to dis- MK: Clearly an artist. Tooby decided that if they had a cover what is so great about being TNH: What advice would you boy, the child would share Tooby’s of Greek origin, which is to be able offer anyone starting out in life to- last name and if they had a girl, the to adapt and still be a human be- day – people in their late teens? child would share her surname. At ing. What the Greek heritage is re- MK: We have huge challenges the age of ten, Nike aspires to be a ally in the end is the universality of in front of us, having to do with cli- fashion designer. humanity. At the bottom of it all, mate change. I would urge them to what sums up everything about study and follow what is happen- John P. Psiharis is president of J. Greece, then and now, is the value ing to the environment – their Psiharis & Associates, Inc, and of humanity. Greece brings out the well-being and even life, literally, co-owner of Little Helpers, Inc. best in humanity, I really believe depend on it. Both are Chicago area business- that. es. He is a founder and former TNH: What is the best part Mark Lardas, a Texan of Greek executive director of Greek- about being American? descent, was born and grew up American Community Services MK: The foundation of America in Ann Arbor, Michigan. An engi- FERMILAB and a founding member of the is democracy, freedom and human- neer who works at a major aero- Dr. Vaia Papadimitriou is a particle physicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Greek-American Nursing and Re- ity. All founded in Greece. So the space company, he is also a free- Illinois. Papadimitriou is the assistant division head of Fermilab’s Ac- habilitation Center located in best in America is the best of lance writer, amateur historian celerator Division and a member of the CDF (Collider Detector at Fer- Wheeling, Illinois. Greece. and model-maker. milab) experimental collaboration. 24 Greek American Scientists THE NATIONAL HERALD DECEMBER 6, 2008 THE NATIONAL HERALD BOOKSTORE

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