Theodoros Varopoulos

Theodoros Varopoulos (Θεόδωρος Βαρόπουλος, 30 January 1884, Astakos – 14 June 1957, Thessaloniki) was a mathematics professor at the University of Athens.

Theodoros A. Varopoulos, the son of a poor family, was born three days before the death of his father. The financial support of the family was undertaken by his brother Nikolaos Tzanio who was a teacher. Theodoros completed his primary education at Zervada, then completed his secondary education in Lefkada.

Despite the financial problems of his family he left his home territory to study in Athens where he passed an exam at the Military Academy of Flight. However, due to his inability to pay the required registration fee, he enrolled in 1914 in the Mathematical Department of the University of Athens. To earn income in the evenings he worked on the Athens Telegraph. He also worked as a clerk at the University of Athens. Among his professors at the University were Kyparissos Stefanos, Georgios Remoundos, and Nikolaos Hatzidakis. He graduated with honors from the University in 1918, and in 1919 he was awarded his doctorate in mathematics.

In 1920, after receiving a scholarship from Emmanouíl Benákis, he was sent to Paris to continue his studies. There, by perfecting the theorems of Georgios Remoundos, he began to send scientific papers to the French Academy of Sciences. These works contributed to the decision of University of Paris to give him the possibility of obtaining a doctoral degree on the basis of his dissertation alone, without taking examinations. Eventually, he became a PhD in 1923, and remained in the school until 1925. At the same time, he continued to publish his scientific papers in journals as well as in conferences. He was also very much appreciated by other French mathematicians of the time and, after his return to Greece, he continued to travel yearly to Paris until the start of WWII.

On his return in 1925 from Paris to Greece he worked first as a secondary school teacher at Athens College. In 1927, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Secondary School of Teaching and in 1929 he was appointed as a professor extraordinarius in higher mathematica analysis at the University of Athens. In 1931 he was appointed professor ordinarius of mathematics at the University of Thessaloniki, where he served until his death on 1957 after a long-term illness.

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