The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is pleased to announce that the seminar room in the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science has been named the Nicholas Bacopoulos and Calypso Gounti Seminar Room. The naming was made possible through a notable gift from Calypso Gounti, in honor of her late husband, Nicholas Bacopoulos.

This marks Ms. Gounti’s second significant gift to the Wiener Laboratory in the past year. In the summer of 2025, she established the Nicholas Bacopoulos and Calypso Gounti Fellowships, which will support Greek scholars pursuing advanced interdisciplinary research in archaeological science.

The newly named seminar room serves as an essential classroom and training space within the Laboratory, where students, fellows, and visiting researchers gather for instruction, workshops, and collaborative learning. It also hosts the Laboratory’s public lectures and events, helping to disseminate new research and share the work of the Lab with both the scientific community and the broader public.

“We are deeply grateful to Calypso Gounti for her continued generosity and vision,” said George Orfanakos, Executive Director of the American School. “Through this meaningful gift, she honors Nick’s memory while strengthening the educational core of the Wiener Laboratory. The seminar room will stand as a lasting tribute to their shared commitment to scholarship, science, and the future of research in Greece.”

“The seminar room is where ideas take shape and where students gain the practical and intellectual foundations of archaeological science,” said Dr. Panagiotis Karkanas, Director of the Wiener Laboratory. “It is the setting for our courses, hands-on training sessions, and daily exchanges among researchers, as well as our public lectures that share the Lab’s work with a wider audience. This notable gift ensures that we can continue to provide an environment that supports rigorous training, collaboration, and outreach at the highest level.”


Nicholas Bacopoulos and Calypso Gounti

Nicholas (Nick) Bacopoulos (March 13, 1949 – July 12, 2021), longtime Overseer of the Gennadius Library, was a distinguished scientist, entrepreneur, and avid supporter of the arts and scholarship. In his memory, his widow Calypso Gounti has given generously to the American School. To the Gennadius Library, she donated a large collection of his books, including an exquisite copy of the monumental 18th-century edition The Antiquities of Athens by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, which Nick acquired shortly before his passing, fulfilling his wish that it become part of the collection. Together, Nick and Calypso also endowed a special reading room in the West Wing of the Gennadius Library, reflecting their shared love of books, culture, and history.

A native of Athens, Nick pursued a remarkable academic and professional career in both Greece and the United States. He earned a B.A. from Cornell College, a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and completed post-doctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine. He began his career leading an NIH-funded laboratory at Dartmouth Medical School before joining Pfizer as Director of Neuroscience and later as President and CEO of Anaderm Research Corporation. Over the course of his career, he held senior leadership positions at Mersana and Aton Pharma, founded several biotechnology companies including Kotinos Pharmaceuticals, Medexis S.A., and MAKScientific LLC, and was awarded 12 patents for innovative cancer therapies. In Greece, he also served as the founding General Director of the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens. Beyond his scientific achievements, Nick was an accomplished artist, an avid book collector, and a trusted advisor to the Gennadeion.

Calypso Gounti is a physician and anesthesiologist who studied at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and completed her specialty training in anesthesiology at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology and has served as a clinical assistant professor of anesthesiology at both Yale and Stanford hospitals. She later practiced for several years at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, a Yale-affiliated institution in New London, Connecticut. Her professional career has been marked by a commitment to patient care, teaching, and service in both academic and clinical settings.

About the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science
The Wiener Laboratory is a research center based on the campus of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, dedicated to the study of the Greek world from deep prehistory to the present day. Researchers investigate diverse aspects of human culture in the ancient world, including technology, trade, economic development, responses to climate change, diet, and health. The Lab provides state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, extensive comparative collections, and support for independent scientific research. To learn more about the Wiener Laboratory and its impact, watch our new short film: Transforming the Study of the Past.