He was born in 1883 in Kymi, Euboea.
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His father was a doctor, and his fellow citizens had elected him mayor.
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It was a time when everyone was involved in politics; they understood that politics was part of everyday life—life itself.
So his father, Nikolaos Papanikolaou, also speaks passionately about Charilaos Trikoupis wherever he goes,
something
which makes him even more popular
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So, a few years later, he was elected to parliament and moved to Athens with his family
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His young son is an excellent student, and the first thing he does is start learning French
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However, he has a natural talent for music, so in addition to his studies, he also attends music school and is learning to play the violin
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However, he is so intelligent, so studious, and so methodical that, at just 15 years old, he manages to finish high school and enroll in the medical school at the University of Athens
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He gets his diploma, finishes his military service, and his father, with his high-level connections, suggests that he be appointed a military doctor
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He refuses and leaves to continue his studies in Germany.
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His old friendships from college with Glinos and Delmouzos have shaped him into a progressive and restless spirit.
So he is pursuing a master's degree in biology in Germany
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He spends three whole years in laboratories in Germany, and when he returns to Greece—a place he had grown unaccustomed to—it seems unpleasant to him.
The country doesn't even have the basics, let alone the Germans' laboratories...
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At his family home in Kymi, he meets and falls in love with Machi Mavrogeni,
a young woman who was exceptionally well-educated for her time
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In the end, he proposes to her, after first making it clear to her that life won't be an easy journey…
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In 1910, they got married and left for France, where he worked for a short time in a scientific laboratory but returned in the meantime because his mother had died
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In 1911, he left for Germany, but a year later, the Balkan Wars broke out and he returned to Greece
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He leaves for the front, where he meets Greek volunteers from the U.S., who share their experiences from America with him,
the opportunities that exist and the tools of our time
and
This leads him to believe that that is where he should go
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In 1913, he and his wife emigrated to the United States in search of a better future.
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But things aren't all rosy when it comes to
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He is forced to take a job at a store that sells rugs
and his wife is a seamstress
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Poverty cannot be fought,
so
Young George takes on a second job
(He works as a reporter for a Greek newspaper)
and a third job,
to play the violin in clubs at night
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That's how he manages to make a living until he gets into the anatomy lab at Columbia University
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Later, he enrolled at Cordell University in New York and embarked on a distinguished career
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The U.S. at that time bears no resemblance to the U.S. of today.
It was a breeding ground for new ideas and innovation in the sciences
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The laboratory at Cordell University becomes his second home.
He is excited about the new horizons opening up for him in his field of study
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She studies cancerous abnormalities in the cervix of mammals
and
In the 1920s, he began his first clinical and laboratory studies
for women
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He is determined to beat cancer, and nothing can stop him, no matter how much his colleagues try to talk him out of it.
(It was unthinkable back then to beat cancer)
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His passion and obsession with his research are so intense that he even enlists his wife as his lab assistant.
She worked as a lab technician, but sometimes she also volunteered there,
from which she took vaginal swabs…..
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In 1928, he presented his paper «A New Diagnosis of Cancer»
but back then,
Scientists at the time didn't take it very seriously
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He doesn't give up and keeps going with even more passion and zeal, and finally, after a lot of effort,
in 1941,
publishes his paper titled:
«The Diagnostic Value of the Pap Smear in the Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer»
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And in 1943, his work sparked a revolution:
«Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer Using Vaginal Smears» (Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer by Vaginal Smear).
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By the 1960s, mortality rates among women in the U.S. from this particular cancer had improved significantly,
that way
is beginning to be implemented in Europe as well
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This tireless guy is now throwing himself headlong into something else.
in training doctors to collect samples properly, how to classify them, and many other details
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His career and achievements have been meteoric since 1941.
University instructor,
Assistant Professor,
Assistant Professor,
Professor,
Professor Emeritus…
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In 1961, he became director of the Cancer Research Institute in Miami,
which was named after him («Papanicolaou Cancer Research Institute»).
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He died on this day, February 19, 1962, of a heart attack, leaving behind a monumental body of work that will endure for all eternity, amen
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Georgios Papanikolaou will go down in history as one of the greatest Greeks of all time.
