Publication: The Sunday Times, p 43
Date: 2 March 2008
Headline: This Greek traded 6,000 isles for one red dot
Ths Greek
traded 6,000
isles for
one red dot
e x ~ a eve
t
I
b Tan Dawn Wei
WHEN Kyriakos Mouratidis left
Greece at the age of 22, bound for
HongKongtodohisPhDincom
puter science at the Hong Kong
Univemity of Science and Technology, it was the &st time he
had stepped out of his country.
'1 used to be one of those
Greelcs who would say, why go
abroad? There's no place better
than my country. I've since found
so many other pltrces better than
Greece," says the university lec-
suer.
On that list must surely be Singapore, which he headed to after
gettjng his postgraduate degree.
Now 27, he has been teaching
data management at Singapore
Management Universily's School
of Information Systems since
2006. He is SMIPs second youngest faculty member.
He gives the thumbs up to Sing a p o ~ b mc ,l d e s s , &-
ciency, year-round summer and,
of c o ~food.
,
Weekends are spent sipping
coffee in the Dempsey m a He alsochillsout-whenheisnotgrading students' papers -by having a
drink at h e r a l d m or clnbbii
attheMIntstryofSound
Despite his brooding good *
looh - he is SMU's poster boy
and has appeared in s e d of its
corporate photo-shoots - he insists no student has passed him
any love note...y et.
1 don't get such vibes when
I'm wearing my professor hat,"
sags the Macedonian, who is dab
ing a Singaporean professional
ST PHOTO; WAN6 HUI FEN
Apart from thinking about
on what you are looking for. Not
only are there numerous choices, jobrelated, topics, I often spend
time exammmg my life, usually
but they are an unique too.
n
a CmQwter.
~
~
For a start, I would recom- aver cMee or during an evenlng
A Ulysses (or Odysseus), the
A In an era of gIobaIisation, both
main hero in Homer's Odyssey. mend Santorini, an Mand made walk in solitude.
places are very successhrl in balfor
romantics
and
lovers.
If
you
His r e s o e e s s , not the weap are lmhg for a coamopolihn i
ancing modernity and traditional
s Q mt's
w to "Ma,values.
onry, led to Greece's victory in land with an intense nightlife,
For instance,both Greeks
tlacabchamg~~rasGn?&nmars and Singaporeans have a strong
the siege of Troy.
then Wkonos is the place.
3
~
~
p
p
o
so
s
d
good
~
atP
After the 10-year Trojan War
belief in the concept of family,
If dreamy beaches are your
ended, it was again his aumhg srstprior&, headfortheronIanb A 'Kamaki" literally means a and honour it devoutly.
and strong will that helped him, a lands.Thelis&couldgocmmdoh sharp fishing tool, and I guess it
r e f f e c t s o u r v i e w ~ ~ iQs What's your own take on how
mortal, overcome the anger and
trapofthegods, a n d m h n s a f e
*hthe sa@&g, "sounds like W k " ,
P A m d i n g to Socrahz, tb wtaThe general rule is to be cams
lytohiskingdom.
about?
examined W e i s not worth liv- 0
-and make a smart
iw.Agm?
intmduchion, as opposed to using A Greek is a very complicated lanP With 6,000 Qh& and Wts A This is in line with an andent st4?reotspia&siUy pickup Ilnes. guage that sounds and looks like
utader Gmwe's name, how does Greek aphorism, "Know thyseP.
Past the initial approach, the none other. Also, Greek words
o n e ~ w h i & o l a e & h o p m I definitely subscribe to it As an Greek sea and sun ate nabrd aph- are common in scientificterminoIto?
academic and mearcher, "exam- rodisiacs that give us a great ad- ow, which is hard to undemtmd.
A This is a tough one; it depends ining* is almost all I do.
vantage.
I must mention, however, that
Q Name
your f a v o u r i b Greek
-.
Source: The Sunday Times O Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
the corresponrmng phrase we use
in Greece is "It soundsChinese to
me".
P Which woman of to&&# wvdd
you describe as a 'Week goddess"?
A I am generally against idealising
or obsessing with Hollywood
stars and top models. I believe
that one can find ugodlilcem
beauties in everyday Me.
In any case, if I were to describe the perfect female body
proportions, I would have to refer
to Aphrodite of M e l q an ancient
Greek sculpture kept at the LouvreMuseuminParis.