Georgios Tsampras ’16 Ph.D. started racing go-karts in his native Greece when he was about 6 years old. His dad introduced him to the sport, and the more he practiced it, the more intrigued he became with the inner workings of the four-wheeled vehicles and the technical demands of driving them.
He was getting ready for practice the day a big earthquake hit Athens. He and his dad rushed to get out of their house and away from surrounding buildings, some of which collapsed. The earthquakes often left local communities devastated. And once Tsampras realized how hard it would be to pull off a career as a Formula One driver, he started thinking about how he could use his growing interest in engineering to protect vulnerable places.
“I enrolled in the civil engineering department at the University of Patras [in Greece] because I wanted to understand how buildings respond during an earthquake,” he says. “I thought it was a great opportunity to contribute.”
It was while pursuing his master’s degree there that he first heard about the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. Several of his professors had earned a Ph.D. in the U.S., and when they learned Tsampras hoped to do the same, they suggested he look into Lehigh.
“They were very familiar with the work Lehigh was doing on steel structures, and highly recommended that I apply,” says Tsampras. “And I will thank them forever for that.”
After receiving his doctorate at Lehigh, Tsampras worked as an engineering consultant at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., in Boston. In March 2019, he joined SpaceX as a Falcon Vehicle structures engineer. In fall, Tsampras started his first semester as an assistant professor of structural engineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
Read the full story by Christine Fennessy, and follow his journey, here.
