ROSEVILLE - Businessman Kyriakos Tsakopoulos has given $1 million to Columbia University to create a chair in Hellenic studies.

Tsakopoulos, son of prominent developer Angelo Tsakopoulos and president of KT Development Corp., made the donation Friday to honor his grandfather, for whom he was named, and to further the study of the relevance of Greek philosopher Aristotle, according to a statement.

The endowment will pay for a new professor in the program in Hellenic studies at the New York university, from which Tsakopoulos graduated. It will also provide for an annual lecture series called "Aristotle and the Moderns."