1987 PhD Geophysics
"I returned to Southampton for a short time recently. I was in the city to show my 11-year-old son Achilleas the place where his father (my husband Christos Spais who died last year from metastatic melanoma) and myself both carried out doctorate degrees in the field of geophysics. The weather resembled that of our very first day back in 1982. Back then, I remember that we went to the Geology Department to meet our future supervisor, Dr Norman Hamilton, who was busy teaching. We walked around the campus and we ended up sitting down at a wooden bench overlooking the Geology building. It was the beginning of November and the weather was already very cold and wet. This was quite a big change from our mild Mediterranean Greek climate and we had second thoughts about being there at that time. I found the same wooden bench with my son, as if no time had passed, and sat telling him stories from the lovely years of our studentship ... until we finally got wet.
Norman Hamilton, now a Professor, is retired and we visited his home while we were in the UK. Most of our friends from that time are pursuing successful careers and I see quite a lot of them at our alumni parties in Greece. We have more than 200 members registered with the Greek Alumni Society and we maintain email contacts with more than 100 people."