Economist Lucas Papademos PhD ’78 named prime minister of Greece

November 2011 — Lucas Papademos, a three-time alumnus of MIT, has been named the prime minister of Greece, where he will head an interim coalition government aiming to save the country from bankruptcy.

Papademos, 64, and the new unity government were brought in after former prime minister George Papandreou agreed to step aside under pressure from opposition party leaders. Papademos has pledged to approve the terms of the European Union’s proposed bailout and pave the way for national parliamentary elections in February of next year.

Papademos was born in Athens and first arrived at the Institute as an undergraduate, receiving his SB in physics in 1970 before going on to earn an SM in electrical engineering in 1972 and a PhD in economics in 1978.

Papademos was born in Athens and first arrived at the Institute as an undergraduate, receiving his SB in physics in 1970 before going on to earn an SM in electrical engineering in 1972 and a PhD in economics in 1978.

He pursued an academic career as a professor of economics at Columbia University from 1975 to 1984, and at the University of Athens from 1988 to 1993. He then became governor of the Bank of Greece in 1994, and vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB) in 2002, a position he held until 2010. Since leaving the ECB, he has served as an adviser to Papandreou.

BBC | Q & A about the new government of Greece