Athanasios Roussopoulos
Encyclopedia
Athanasios Roussopoulos was a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 scientist, Professor at the National Technical University of Athens
National Technical University of Athens
The National Technical University of Athens , sometimes simply known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest and most prestigious higher education institutions of Greece....

 and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, member of the Greek Parliament and Minister of Public Works
Minister of Public Works
A minister of public works is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with public works matters.The position exists in many countries under several names:...

. He was also President of the Technical Chamber of Greece
Technical Chamber of Greece
The Technical Chamber of Greece is the Greek professional organization that serves as the official technical advisor of the Greek state and is responsible for awarding professional licences to all practicing engineers in Greece. It is a public legal entity with elected administration, supervised...

.

Early years

Roussopoulos was born in Athens, the son of Ioannis Roussopoulos, a lawyer from Athens, and Dionysia Veliotis (1871-1955?) of Prasino ca 20 km NW of Levidi
Levidi
Levidi is a small town and a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. The village sits on the eastern part of the slope of the Mainalo mountains. The pine forests are...

 in the Peloponnese. He had a sister Eleni Roussopoulos (1911–1993), lawyer and civil servant, who never married.

Professional life

In 1930 he was appointed Professor in Applied Statics and Iron Constructions at the National Technical University of Athens
National Technical University of Athens
The National Technical University of Athens , sometimes simply known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest and most prestigious higher education institutions of Greece....

, also known as the Athens Polytechnic, where his work was mostly concerned with the development of the theory of aseismic structures, on which he published many papers. He resigned and became Emeritus Professor in 1958 in order to enter political life.

He was a leading figure in the reconstruction after the Corinth earthquake of 1928, when he collaborated with the then Bishop of Corinth, Damaskinos. In 1932 he fell ill and went to his mother’s village to recuperate. The council there consulted him on a new name for the village (many places in Greece were renamed to get away from their old Ottoman names) and he suggested Prasino, which was adopted.

During the war, Roussopoulos was an advisor to the National Organisation of Christian Solidarity set up by the same now Archbishop Damaskinos
Archbishop Damaskinos
Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou was the archbishop of Athens and All Greece from 1941 until his death. He was also the regent of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King Georgios II to Greece in 1946...

 which was instrumental in saving thousands from starvation or execution, and he also took the dangerous office of President of the secret organisation of National Solidarity which had been founded by the EAM
EAM
Possible meanings:* Electric Accounting Machine * Electric Aero Modeling* Electro-absorption modulator* Electronic art music* Embedded atom method* Emergency Action Message* Energy Art Movement* Enhanced Assessment Methodology...

 movement to collect food, money and clothing for the resistance fighters.

In December 1944 three professors, including the Rector Ioannis Theophanopoulos, and twelve students of the Athens Polytechnic were arrested, taken to the mountains and executed by an ELAS band. At the Rector's public funeral, Roussopoulos gave the funerary speech in which he expressed: "... Shame to our precious vision of social justice, which was greatly dishonored and soiled from acts that were carried out in its name. We cannot accept the excuse that at great shifts of human history revolutions necessitate victims, because we have behind us a century of rapid and positive development which has changed this account of life and created such spiritual resurgence that it is no longer necessary for humanity to pass through the debris of human barbarity to carry on. ...".

He was President of the Technical Chamber of Greece
Technical Chamber of Greece
The Technical Chamber of Greece is the Greek professional organization that serves as the official technical advisor of the Greek state and is responsible for awarding professional licences to all practicing engineers in Greece. It is a public legal entity with elected administration, supervised...

 from 1951 to 1958, when he put forward radical new projects that were vetoed by American advisers because they paralleled Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic...

's approach to public finances.

After the great 1953 Ionian earthquake
1953 Ionian Earthquake
The Great 1953 Ionian Earthquake struck the southern Ionian Islands in Greece on August 12, 1953. In mid-August 1953, beginning on 8 August there were over 113 recorded earthquakes in the region between Kefalonia and Zakynthos, but the most destructive was the earthquake of August 12th...

 he introduced a system of shoring up the shattered walls of the houses in Lefkada
Lefkada
Lefkada, or Leucas or Leucadia , is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Greece, connected to the mainland by a long causeway and floating bridge. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Lefkada . It is situated on the northern part of the island,...

 with corrugated iron, a paradoxically attractive feature still of many houses in the city. This successfully withstood the next big earthquake of 2003.

Between 1928 and 1966 he published 36 studies and books on technical subjects, of which several have been translated into English, French and German. He also wrote many influential books about the philosophy of science and life. The first, in 1936, was "To Construct and to Rejoice - towards essential reasoning and order".

Political life

In 1961 he was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Center Union
Center Union
The Centre Union was a Greek political party, created in 1961 by George Papandreou, senior.The party was elected to power in 1963, with Papandreou as Prime Minister...

 (Greek: Ένωση Κέντρου) party led by George Papandreou
George Papandreou (senior)
Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as Prime Minister of Greece...

 the elder, and re-elected in 1964. After the crisis of 1965 (the Apostasia
Apostasia
Apostasia may refer to:* Apostasia of 1965, a series of political events in Greece, which toppled the legally elected government of George Papandreou, senior* Apostasia orchid, a genus of primitive orchids , comprising 7 terrestrial species...

) he joined the short-lived government formed by Stephanos Stephanopoulos
Stephanos Stephanopoulos
Stefanos Stefanopoulos was a Greek politician. He was a moderate conservative, and served as a cabinet member during Alexandros Papagos' government...

 and became Minister of Public Works
Minister of Public Works
A minister of public works is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with public works matters.The position exists in many countries under several names:...

 in 1966.

When a military junta
Greek military junta of 1967-1974
The Greek military junta of 1967–1974, alternatively "The Regime of the Colonels" , or in Greece "The Junta", and "The Seven Years" are terms used to refer to a series of right-wing military governments that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974...

 ('the Colonels') took power in 1967, he was one of the many intellectuals arrested, sacked from their posts then confined to restricted residence. He then started what he called an informal new 'Plato's Academy' - his old students would gather at his house in Athens and his teaching continued there.

He did not return to Parliament after the return to democracy in 1974 but retired from public life and died in Athens on 1 June 1983.

Personal life

With Dr Calliope Caldis (1906–1990), daughter of George Emmanuel Kaldis (1875–1953), MP for Lesbos and Lemnos, he had a son George (b. 1941). He then married Xeni Soldatou (?-1985) of Lefkada and had two sons, Alexandros (1943–2008) and Andreas (1946–2004).

Selected writings

1932: Die Verschiebungsellipsoide elastischer Korper, Konjugierte Ellipsoiden. Die erzeugenden vektoriellen Dyaden, Zeitshrift fur Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik, Heft 4, Aug. 1932

1936: Κατασκευασειν και χαιρειν, Papasisis Athens 1936 & 1966

1944: Το θεορητικο κοινωνικο προβλεμα, Athens

1944: Η συλλογικη διανοια, Athens

1947: Διακνρυξις του επι κατοχνς προεδρου τνς εθνικης αλληγγυης, Athens

1949: Αντισεισμικαι Κατασκευαι, Papachrisanthou Athens 1949 & 1956

1950: Economic decongestion and expansion, abolition of direct taxation and issue of production paper currency [in Greek], in Records of Economic and Social Sciences (editor Prof J. Kaltsounakis) vol 27/9, 1950, reprinted 1955, 1959, 1964

1958: Θεορια ελαστικων συμπλεγματων και ελαστικων συνδεσμων, in “Annales Techniques” Athens v35 no. 403-408

1965: Theory of elastic complexes, Roussopoulos, A. I., Transl Cavadias & Tazartes, Elsevier Amsterdam, Library of Congress catalog card number 64-18522

1966: Θπησκεια αγαπις και κατασκευης, Ατηενς

1967: Théorie des structures élastiques, Roussopoulos, A. I., Transl J. Panisset, Dunod Paris, Depot Legal No. 5281

1968: Αναλυσις εργον βιογραφικον σημειωμα, Athens Academy

1970: Εργασια αγαπη ειρηνη, Kapadistriakon

1971: Homos Mathematicus Constructor, Athens

1983: The issue of production, paper currency and the abolition of personal taxation, Roussopoulos, A. I., introduction by L. M.Michaelidis, Bureau Marcus, Amstelveen 1983, reprinted Athens 1987

External links

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