Athanasios Roussopoulos ( el, Αθανάσιος Ρουσόπουλος, 1903–1983) was a
Greek scientist, Professor at the
National Technical University of Athens
The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...
and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
, member of the
Greek Parliament and
Minister of Public Works. He was also President of the
Technical Chamber of Greece The Technical Chamber of Greece ( el, Τεχνικό Επιμελητήριο Ελλάδας) (TEE-TCG) is the Greek professional organization that serves as the official technical advisor of the Greek state and is responsible for awarding professio ...
.
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 ( el, Λεβίδι) 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 municipal unit has an area of ...
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
The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...
, also known as the
Athens Polytechnic
The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...
, 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 Papandreou ( el, Αρχιεπίσκοπος Δαμασκηνός Παπανδρέου), born Dimitrios Papandreou ( el, Δημήτριος Παπανδρέου; 3 March 1891 – 20 May 1949) was the archbishop of Athens ...
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 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 The Technical Chamber of Greece ( el, Τεχνικό Επιμελητήριο Ελλάδας) (TEE-TCG) is the Greek professional organization that serves as the official technical advisor of the Greek state and is responsible for awarding professio ...
from 1951 to 1958, when he put forward radical new projects that were vetoed by American advisers because they paralleled
Hjalmar Schacht's approach to public finances.
After the great
1953 Ionian earthquake
The 1953 Ionian earthquake (also known as the Great Kefalonia earthquake) struck the southern Ionian Islands in Greece on August 12. In mid-August, there were over 113 recorded earthquakes in the region between Kefalonia and Zakynthos, and the m ...
he introduced a system of shoring up the shattered walls of the houses in
Lefkada 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
The Centre Union ( el, Ἕνωσις Κέντρου ''Énōsis Kéntrou'', abbreviated ΕΚ) was a major centrist political party in Greece, created in 1961 by Georgios Papandreou.Clogg, 1987, pp. 39–40
History
The Centre Union was a politica ...
(Greek: Ένωση Κέντρου) party led by
George Papandreou the elder, and re-elected in 1964. After the crisis of 1965 (the
Apostasia) he joined the short-lived government formed by
Stephanos Stephanopoulos
Stefanos Stefanopoulos ( el, Στέφανος Στεφανόπουλος, 3 July 1898 – 4 October 1982) was a Greek politician, and served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1965 to 1966.
Stefanopoulos was born in Pyrgos, Elis. He was a modera ...
and became
Minister of Public Works in 1966.
When a
military junta ('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
Georgios Emmanouil Kaldis
Georgios Emmanouil Kaldis (, 1875–1953) was a Greek lawyer, journalist, politician, and member of the Greek Parliament from 1915 to 1928 in the Liberal Party ('' Komma Fileleftheron'') founded by Eleftherios Venizelos.
Early years
George Emmanu ...
(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
n Greek
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
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
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roussopoulos, Athanasios
1903 births
1983 deaths
Academic staff of the National Technical University of Athens
Scientists from Athens
Greek MPs 1961–1963
Greek MPs 1964–1967
Centre Union politicians
Politicians from Athens