Aristotelis Panagiotopoulos

“Maths is hard.”  This is how Aristotelis Panagiotopoulos prefaced his answer to our question about his teaching philosophy and we couldn’t agree more. Even more impressive, then, that he manages to make even the most abstract of topics feel easy to understand. This sentiment was also echoed in the nominations we received, so we did not hesitate when it came to inviting Aristotelis to tell us about his views on teaching. 

For those that visit his lectures, two things are immediately obvious. 

Firstly, every seemingly random definition and theorem has its reasons for being exactly the way it is. In his own words: “Ideas do not exist without context”. And it is exactly that context which he manages to motivate and teach very well. His lectures are full of drawings, diagrams, historical fun facts and bigger picture ideas that make even the most complicated objects and statements feel like the natural conclusion of what came before.

Secondly, Aristotelis takes time for students. Whether that is during or outside of the lecture. No question is not worth a proper explanation and no teaching plan important enough that it can’t be modified on the spot to talk about a problem that may have just appeared. He manages to convey that having questions or needing help is never an inconvenience. 

It is impossible not to see that Aristotelis loves teaching and invests a great deal of thought and consideration into his lectures and it is even more impossible to leave said lectures without a newfound appreciation of the beauty of mathematics.