Georgios Georgopoulos – MSc Hydrography graduate

"The University is a modern institution with all the necessary and adequate academic facilities. It has an up to date library, access to a huge archive of books and journals in electronic form, friendly and helpful staff, highly educated and inspirational tutors, modern laboratories and state of the art scientific equipment."

Tell us about your career path since graduation.

Receiving a degree from Plymouth gave me the opportunity to work as a Hydrographic Surveyor at the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service (HNHS), which is Greece’s national official service. Its main target is to produce and keep up to date nautical charts and publications. Especially due to its vast number of islands and islets (around 29,000), I work in a highly demanding sea environment – there is more than 11,000 nautical miles of coastline. In short, we mainly conduct topographic and multi beam surveys.

What is the most difficult thing which you have faced in your career?

By having more than ten years offshore experience (I have scheduled and executed transits tens of thousands of nautical miles to the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean), it has enabled me to overcome a great number of difficulties. From my perspective, working under severe weather conditions, high winds, and unfavourable sea conditions, has still been painful every single time.

What is the best, most exciting or fun thing that you have done in your career?

I know that it may sound trivial, but the navy really allows you to experience a lot of fun things. Particularly, however, I would distinguish my participation as a navigation officer in a multinational operation in the Persian Gulf, where 10,000 miles were scheduled and implemented within a period of four months.

What, if anything, would you do differently if you could?

I would have done this course ten years earlier. I’ve lost precious time studying later on in life, but hydrography and the industrial applications of it are fascinating. Above and beyond the previous, I would have done a bachelor degree in land surveying.

How did studying at Plymouth help you?

The greatest asset of Plymouth is that it’s a student-oriented town, which means that there is plenty of accommodation and that walking distances to all points of interest like the bus and train stations, shopping centres, parks, and the seafront with its eye-catching view is all really close.

Would you recommend undertaking a course with the University, and why?

Definitely. The University is a modern institution with all the necessary and adequate academic facilities. It has an up to date library, access to a huge archive of books and journals in electronic form, friendly and helpful staff, highly educated and inspirational tutors, modern laboratories and state of the art scientific equipment. In addition, a student can find all modern conveniences on campus like restaurants and cafes, study and computer rooms, nursery, gym etc.