The academic job market is tough, and so you do not usually have much of a choice as to where you end up. So, I’m very fortunate to be in NYC and to be working in Queens, where my family has roots. My grandfather—on my father’s side—came to NYC as an undocumented immigrant in the 1950s from the island of Andros in Greece. He was actually arrested for being in the country unlawfully, but fortunately my grandmother, recently arrived from the island of Nisyros in Greece, agreed to marry him, allowing him to stay in the country. They lived in Astoria, where my father was born in 1958. In the 1960s, they moved to my hometown, but I grew up visiting family in Astoria (a few blocks from Astoria park), where my great grandparents lived into their 90s. Funnily enough, my colleague and collaborator, Ara Basmajian, was living across the street from my great grandparents’ house when I started working at Queens College.
I graduated high school in 2004 and moved to Boston to attend Northeastern University, where I obtained a BS in physics and mathematics. I started as a computer and electrical engineering student, switching to a physics and engineering track, and finally ending up in math and physics. The more I learned, the more I enjoyed the abstraction and the logical foundations of mathematics. Also, it had a great community. I didn’t know that mathematician was a potential career; as a high school student talented in math and science, I was told that becoming a medical doctor or engineer were the two main options.
After graduating from Northeastern in the Summer of 2008, I spent the Fall 2008 semester at the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. I switched to the math degree late in my undergraduate career, and so my background was not particularly strong. Having the opportunity to participate in the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics is what really opened the door for graduate study; I’m fortunate to have stumbled onto the program and to have been able to participate.
Before starting graduate school, I spent the 2009–10 academic year teaching high school at the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School. I started my PhD in the Fall 2010 semester, graduating in Spring 2015. All together, I was in the Boston area for eleven years. I then lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for three years during my postdocoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. I started at Queens College in August 2018 and joined the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center in 2021.