Zorba the Greek scientist

I begin by stating that I have not regretted coming back to Greece after 17 years of working abroad and that I have no plans to seek employment in another country. I still enjoy both living in and doing science in Greece. Having said that, let me say that most non-Greeks to whom I describe my life as a researcher tend to see in me a clear-cut case of schizophrenia. How can one plan anything in a country where, over the past 15 years, there have been 10 or so different Secretaries-General for Research and Technology and a slightly larger number of Ministers of Education? How can one do research when the annual funds allocated to the universities for that purpose arrive in August, or even later (if ever)? How can one hope to obtain the necessary funds if, in order for a research grant proposal to be accepted, one has almost always to include a partner from the private sector, even on the most basic science projects? And this, in a country in which the private industry hardly invests any money in development. The solution to these and other similar problems was provided years ago by Nikos Kazantzakis, Greece’s most famous modern writer: act like Zorba the Greek — be ebullient. Unpredictability is the most prominent characteristic of modern Greek life, and science is no exception. As a matter of fact, unpredictability is itself so predictable that most of us have learned to live with it. For example, there are always transport strikes during the days before Christmas or Easter, so you plan your travel accordingly. There are always power failures in Crete in the winter months, so you use sophisticated back-up systems to ensure that your sequencer will be running uninterrupted. You know that a letter from Greece to Brussels will take anything from one day to two weeks, so you use an overnight courier when you need to meet a grant deadline. You not only learn to cope with these ‘simple’ problems, but you also wonder why foreigners can’t.