Interview by Despina Dimotsi, Issue 6 – Fall 2024 – English Edition
Pantazis Choulis was born in Perth (Western Australia).
He attended schools in Australia and Greece where he later moved to the Mathematics Department of the University of Crete, where while he was an undergraduate he took postgraduate courses. This was followed by a scholarship to the University of Western Australia, where he completed a Masters in Algebraic Graph Theory, a PhD in Control Systems (Electronic Mechanics) In between he was in the Jasmine Project’s Biomedical team to find the causes of cleft palate in young children, in the teams CIIPS (Centre for Intelligent Information Processing Systems) and ARCME (Australian Research Center for Medical Engineering) where he published articles on the detection of cancerous forms in mammograms and encephalograms with a 98% success rate.
When he became an Academician in the Civil Engineering department, he was in a research group on topics such as crack propagation in solid walls and the creation of interconnected buildings in an extraterrestrial environment (eg on the planet Mars). At the same time, he taught two important courses, Risk Engineering with 300 students, and General Engineering with 700 students, where he was distinguished with teaching awards.
In Kastellorizo he founded the Museum of Riddles and organized the Festival. At the moment Pantazis Choulis is one of the most famous names in the world in the field, he is the man who made Rubik (who made the famous cube) invite him to his studio in Budapest (2009), as he himself had taken the folding mechanism his many steps ahead.
He is also involved in sports. Football, Swimming, Cycling, Mountain walking.
DD: How were the years in Australia and how was the move to Greece?
PH: Australia, especially Perth, is an ideal place to raise young children. I have wonderful memories of our big house, the beautiful parks, the sandy beach in the sea and other landscapes. The move back to Greece was because my father wanted to return his home, and to live in Kastellorizo. You had to see the wild beauty of the island in 1976, when we had only 78 inhabitants!
In Kastellorizo I went to the first grade of primary school and did a little bit of the second grade. I finished the rest of the classes in the (old) 6th Primary School in Rhodes, and then in the 4th Junior High School and the 2nd Lyceum. I went to the (old) University of Crete which was close to Knossos and of course to Labyrinth… the first Escape Room in the history of mankind!
I loved math so much that when I was an undergraduate I chose graduate courses, and many of my classmates had driven me crazy because they were telling to take easier courses.
Then, by having dual citizenship, I easily managed to get a scholarship to do a Master’s degree in Algebraic Graph Theory at the University of Western Australia, in the city where I was born.
DD: At what age did the love for mathematics and natural sciences arise and by extension for the other specialties you successfully followed?
PH: I remember when I was seven years old, I saw a show with the Magic Square on YENED TV. And while I solved the puzzle, my parents and siblings either couldn’t or just didn’t show interest. Of course, I liked the challenge, especially when I managed to solve the problem. Then I started making three-dimensional puzzles, even if it meant destroying my mom’s kitchen tools. At the same time, in 1979 my parents had made me learn music (bouzouki), but I was more interested in the notes and the mathematical differences that quarters and wholes had!
So I slowly began to acquire a mixture of knowledge and experience, which is the key to becoming creative.
DD: Tell us a little about the field of Biomedical Engineering you have been involved in as well as your teaching as an Academician.
PH: When I finished my (already 80-page!) Master’s degree in Mathematics at the University of Western Australia, I was obviously given the option to pursue a PhD. But that would mean repeating a lot of wording, whereas I always wanted to do something new and innovative. After a project on Geophysics, in 1999 to 2000 I took part in the Smile-Train Jasmine program for children born with cleft lip. Our team, through a database of twenty thousand (20,000) mothers from Western Australia, found that those who ate the traditional Australian spread Vegemite all had children without the cleft lip. In fact, we were invited to John Hopkins Hospital in New York to present our findings.
A year later I had the honor to join the team of ARCME (Australian Research Centre for Medical Engineering), where I published research to detect tumors in mammograms and brain scans with 98% success. Shortly afterwards I started my PhD in Control Systems (Electronic Engineering), and joined the CIIPS (Centre for Intelligent Information Processing Systems) group focusing on Robotics.
Teaching is also a big chapter of my life. Since high school I have been helping relatives and friends in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, using many funny and playful examples. Then I found that games generally enhance the power of education, making it more engaging, understandable, effective and fun. And when I was teaching at the University of Western Australia (in the General Engineering course that covered all types of Mechanical Engineering), my students gave me a very high score, establishing me as the best mathematical science lecturer in all of Western Australia, and ranking 144th out of 20162 nominations from all over Australia, in all disciplines, and in all institutions, schools, colleges, etc.
DD: How did you decide to leave all this to live in Kastellorizo? Describe to us this beautiful remote island and why it is worth visiting!
PH: The fact that I was in Kastellorizo at a tender age played an important role. But a more important role was played by the fact that through conferences I traveled all over the world. The comparison with Greece was inevitable, and my personal conclusion was that Greece is the most beautiful country in the world and Kastellorizo is the most beautiful place in Greece. So our island is the most beautiful place in the world! (something that tourists who come here also admit).
After a few years as an academic in Australia, the number of students under my responsibility was growing, as was the stress. I had reached a point where I felt burned out despite the impressive salary I was getting. Money is always important, but never against health and quality of life. At the same time, returning to Kastellorizo with its beautiful and friendly nature was constantly on my mind.
Kastellorizo is a unique island. With innumerable ancient monuments, with virgin nature and endemic species, with the special Blue Cave and the surrounding islands, with the paths that have stunning views, with its traditions and with its culture that contains riddles and puzzles. And of course now there is the Puzzle Museum.
DD: Tell us about the puzzles. How you started collecting them and how the Puzzle Museum in Kastellorizo came about. How was the Puzzle Festival organized?
PH: The late 70s and early 80s were the time when the Rubik’s Cube entered our lives dynamically, essentially bringing all puzzles to the forefront. The collection was done in many ways, but it grew significantly when I returned to Australia.
There I started the Mechanical & Mathematical Puzzle Club (MMPC), which unfortunately was not continued by my Australian friends when I returned to Greece, because no one had a large collection or enough knowledge about the different types of puzzles. However, I left an imprint as the organizer of the first two official WCA speedsolving tournaments of the Rubik’s Cube in Western Australia. Today this event has grown with hundreds of participants, and I feel very proud of the successors.
And then, when I returned to Kastellorizo, the Puzzle Museum was a given, especially with the huge collection I already had, with many collectible and important exhibits worldwide. Let me emphasize that, out of the approximately 5000 puzzles in my collection, 800 are my own designs and prototypes.
There were two times when I wanted to start a big event called MEGIS (Megistian Scientific, Puzzle, and Historical Symposium). But due to circumstances (failed marriage, COVID) the project was postponed both times. Since 2008 I had started KEC (Kastellorizo Enigma Congress), while since 2017 I started the MAA (four Puzzle Competitions) which is maintained to this day (although for the time being, due to lack of time, energy and help, I was forced to maintain only one of the four competitions).
In 2020, the EN.I.G.MA. Club (Union of Ideas, Riddles and Mathematics) was founded and the Puzzle Museum opened. While 2021 was the pivotal year. Having met Eleni Grammatikopoulou since 2019, she, through her many years of experience in Science Communication, triggered the beginning of the Puzzle Festival, an event so big that even we ourselves did not expect it.
The attendance at the Puzzle Festival was huge from its beginning. But financial assistance from the central state has been less than expected for an event that is unique worldwide. The lot of the required tasks (bureaucratic, organizational, etc.) fell to me and Eleni, something that negatively affected our health and our finances. Because we are not only organizers, but necessarily we are also volunteers and sponsors.
We had significant help from individuals, but not enough for the size of the Puzzle Festival, The work was so suffocating, that it often put us in serious thoughts about whether it was really worth it. In fact, for a while, I was forced to give up creating and producing puzzles altogether, reaching the point of depression. In addition, I have entered my 6th year of taking cortisone daily, due to a dangerous autoimmune disease (for which in Australia I am entitled to a disability pension). But fortunately, the mountain and sea of Kastellorizo help me balance these health issues, keeping myself in excellent physical, mental and spiritual condition.
A very important reason for the existence of the Puzzle Museum and the Puzzle Festival in Kastellorizo is that the two Greeks from Kastellorizo, Michail Toulouzas and myself, actively represent our country in the International Puzzle Party. The interesting thing is that I met Michalis through the International Puzzle Party, and then I learned that we are both from Kastellorizo. Of course, there are many more that connect the puzzles with Kastellorizo, such as manuscript magazines with riddles of the 19th century that are in the Folklore Museum of the island. Perhaps the cistern water that we and our ancestors drank as children played a role.
I hope that in the future there will be a more sincere support to the island and to an event that actively helps my country, leaving an indelible imprint of culture.
In general, the organization of summer events by non-Kastellorizians who advertise themselves through the island, based on logic, is simply exploitation of the already existing tourist population and does not help the island and the over-busy locals. It is no coincidence that they are common events, completely unrelated to the island and its culture, while they receive generous state sponsorships for the wrong reasons. And despite the sponsorships, by selling their own tourist items, they essentially compete impermissibly with the people of Kastellorizo at the best time of the year.
In stark contrast, the Puzzle Festival has always relied on problem-solving and strongly resists such “phenomena”, lengthening the season and bringing people in October, a time when locals and their children can participate in many events. But the most important is the theme of the Puzzle Festival, which concerns local and globally innovative culture, which it exports to Greece and the rest of the world.
DD: Which is the most difficult puzzle, the strangest, the easiest, the most famous and your favorite?
PH: The definition of a puzzle is anything that forces us to think and become more creative. Through puzzles not only science can be cultivated, but also patience, perseverance, ethics, virtue, critical thinking, philosophy, etc.
The most difficult but at the same time wonderful puzzle is the woman. And on this many agree with me. The moment we men believe that we have solved the puzzle of the woman, she transforms again into another puzzle. While the strangest puzzle is the man himself. A creature that has managed to conquer space, but has not managed to save the planet. Man is a paradox in physical form.
The easiest puzzle does not exist. Because if it doesn’t have some elementary difficulty, it’s not a puzzle. While as a term, the difficulty can perhaps be measured between the puzzles of a small sub-group of puzzles. In general, measuring ease or difficulty is subjective. Depending on past experiences, a puzzle that is easy for one is difficult for another, and vice versa. As an example, a fisherman with experience in fishing lines is automatically an expert in tanglement puzzles, without having studied a single page of topology.
When it comes to famous puzzles, the Rubik’s Cube is not only the most famous puzzle, but by sales, it is also the most successful toy of all time.
As to what my favorite puzzle is, I have many, and most of them are my own constructions. For example, the House of Kastellorizo (opening puzzle), Ostomachion (the oldest puzzle, from Archimedes), Medusa (matching puzzle), and the Dodecathlon (unexplained object).
DD: Who or whom do you consider as the top expert in puzzles based on complexity and innovation?
PH: Hungarian professor Erno Rubik is apparently at the top. He is known for the famous cube, but he also invented many other amazing (and now super-collectible) puzzles that adorn the Puzzle Museum. The impressive thing is that they were made in my favorite way (i.e. based on exhaustive research and verification) at a time (80s) when assistive use of computers was still in its infancy.
This year, at the Puzzle Festival (11-13 October), the Dutchman Oskar van Deventer will be present, who creates new innovative puzzles almost every week. He collaborates with others, while using 3D printing as his main source of prototyping. In the same category belong the Japanese Hirokazu Iwasawa, the Finn Vesa Timonen, the Americans Bram Cohen and Wei Hua. Of course, I should mention Michail Toulouzas, the world’s best designer of wooden exploration puzzles.
I won’t say much about myself, except that I prefer to build seemingly easy puzzles with unusual twists and unexpected solutions, as a product of analytical research. Some of my puzzles may only be two or three simple pieces, but they will put the solvers in a lot of thought.
In general, I let my constructions (and those of other manufacturers) “talk” to the visitors of the Puzzle Museum and feel the “cultural shock” that will permeate them by trying new mechanisms and prototypes. In other words, imagine a fascinating but unknown knowledge of millennia penetrating you breathlessly within an hour.
I feel great pleasure when after a tour I see visitors walking away and talking to each other, not believing what happened and how it is possible to have such a place on the island, where Mathematics through puzzles become “Mathemagics”.
As you can see, the world of puzzles is huge, a parallel but wondrous universe, where each manufacturer is an expert in specific types of puzzles.
DD: Which is considered the oldest puzzle in Greece and which in the world?
PH: In my collection I have different versions of a puzzle called “Ostomachion”. It is the synthesis of the words Bone and Battle, because it was made of ivory and needed mental battle to solve. The Ostomachion was invented by Archimedes and (according to the Palimpsest) the purpose of the game is to place 14 pieces differently within a square frame.
Although the editions I have in my collection come from different countries (i.e. it is a well-known puzzle abroad), it is unfortunate that the majority of Greeks do not know this very important puzzle. Ostomachion was also the symbol of the Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival in 2023 in an effort to make it widely known.
At the same time, I have been studied the Ostomachion for many years, for which I am preparing a book on the correct way of placing the sections, always based on the texts in ancient Greek. Classic sections give 536 solutions, but according to my research, the number is ten times higher!
DD: As a sports lover, what activities do you relax with on the island?
PH: In the past I have had distinctions in cycling, swimming, marathon and football. Therefore, I have the “germ” of sports, so that I adhere to the saying “a healthy mind in a healthy body”.
Due to the large and steep altitude differences, the mountains of Kastellorizo are ideal for demanding but also enjoyable training. I also find it very addictive to open paths, which reveal new spots with fantastic views.
Also, the crystal clear waters of the island are ideal for swimming throughout the year. But apart from myself, it’s very rare to see others diving into the sea in winter (except 1-2 times when I saw some Australians). Personally, I consider swimming the best sport by far from all the rest, because it exercises, heals, and of course, relaxes.
DD: What are your own future plans and what else do you dream of preparing for Puzzleology and the Puzzle Museum?
PH: During the school year I organize Puzzle Labs, where I simply bring puzzles to the local school and those who want (young or old) can come and play. There have been times when there is a large turnout, but also occasions when I was alone. Of course, even alone, I always have a great time, because obviously I am surrounded by puzzles. In fact, in these workshops I also test some of my prototypes before putting them into production, giving the opportunity to those present to try something innovative for the first time worldwide.
It is important to note that for the construction and production of my puzzles, I use powerful (mathematical or not) programs, some of which I taught my students at the University of Western Australia. There aren’t many people who have a combination of passion, creativity, knowledge of mathematics, the ability to program, and possess of a rare large collection of puzzles.
Having been fortunate enough to know and experience the wonderful world of puzzles, it was only a matter of time before thoughts about the next steps. The Puzzle Museum was a goal that I had set many years ago, and that has already been achieved. The Puzzle Festival based on the Puzzle Museum was also a matter of time when it became a reality, exporting culture from a remote island. The next objectives are the following:
1. Remodeling of the Puzzle Museum into a larger, renovated and better quality space for the protection of puzzles and for a more pleasant experience for visitors. It is imperative that the puzzles be found in a more comfortable space, so that all exhibits are not on top of each other, are not destroyed by moisture and dust, and information (type of puzzle, manufacturer, date, etc.) is listed next to each exhibit. This whole process can be done gradually with an extension of the already existing Puzzle Museum.
2. 2. Construction of a quality puzzle production unit in Kastellorizo. This move, if realized, will help create jobs and at the same time export innovative puzzles worldwide.
3. Creation of Puzzleology (Puzzle Making), a new branch of Sciences that will aim at the general solution of problems. I already have a syllabus ready with the corresponding courses to cover all the necessary curriculum. As a discipline, I hope it will start in Greece, so that we can prove that through our Science and History, we deserve to present to the world samples of pioneering culture.
Although the Puzzle Museum started as a private initiative, it was a super-effort with little to no help. The know-how already exists and every year I create new puzzles, some of which I manage with enormous effort and personal cost to produce. But the pace of production is desperately and alarmingly slow. And this is not because puzzles have no potential, but because they form a new and unexplored space. Therefore, all that is needed is the will to speed up the process of spreading some extremely beneficial knowledge.
I will end by saying that all of the above is impossible to describe in words. Just when one climbs the mountain, it is impossible to describe in words the aroma of herbs, the magnificent view, and the fresh air. But a visit to the Puzzle Museum will demonstrate through interaction the potential of puzzles in education and problem solving in general.