Bio
My work aims to improve research methods and practices and to enhance approaches to integrating information and generating reliable evidence. Science is the best thing that can happen to humans, but doing research is like swimming in an ocean at night. Science thrives in darkness. Born in New York City (1965), raised in Athens. Valedictorian (1984), Athens College; National Award, Greek Mathematical Society (1984); MD (top rank of medical school class) from National University of Athens (1990); also received DSc in biopathology from same institution. Trained at Harvard and Tufts (internal medicine, Infectious diseases), then held positions at NIH, Johns Hopkins, Tufts. Chaired the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina Medical School (1999-2010) while also holding adjunct professor positions at Harvard, Tufts, and Imperial College. Moved to Stanford in 2010, initially as Director/C.F. Rehnborg Chair at Stanford Prevention Research Center, then diversified with appointments in 4 departments and membership in 8 centers/institutes at Stanford. Launched the PhD program in Epidemiology & Clinical Research and the MS program in Community Health & Prevention Research. Launched METRICS in 2014. NCI/NIH Senior Advisor on Knowledge Integration (2012-6). President (2023-4), Association of American Physicians. President, Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. Editorial board member of many leading journals (including PLoS Medicine, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, JNCI, many others) and Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Clinical Investigation (2010-2019). Delivered ~700 invited and honorary lectures. Recipient of many awards (e.g. European Award for Excellence in Clinical Science [2007], Medal for Distinguished Service, Teachers College, Columbia U [2015], Chanchlani Global Health Award [2017], Epiphany Science Courage Award [2018], Einstein fellow [2018], Gordon award [2019], Albert Stuyvenberg Medal (2021), Harwood Prize [2022]). Inducted in Association of American Physicians (2009), European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2010) American Epidemiological Society (2015), European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2015), National Academy of Medicine (2018), Accademia delle Scienze (Bologna) (2021). Honorary titles from FORTH (2014) and Ioannina (2015), honorary doctorates from Rotterdam (2015), Athens (2017), Tilburg (2019), Edinburgh (2021), Thessaloniki (2023), McMaster (ceremony 11/2024). Multiple honorary lectureships/visiting professorships (Caltech, Oxford, LSHTM, Yale, U Utah, U Conn, UC Davis, U Penn, Wash U St. Louis, NIH, Cedars-Sinai among others). The PLoS Medicine paper on “Why most published research findings are false” is the most-accessed article in the history of Public Library of Science (>3 million hits). Author of 9 literary books, three of them shortlisted for best book of the year Anagnostis awards in Greece. Latest book (in English, published in 2022) is 2 books hyperlinked to each other. Brave Thinker scientist for 2010 per Atlantic, “may be one of the most influential scientists alive”. Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate) in Clinical Medicine, Social Sciences and Psychiatry/Psychology. h=259 (Google Scholar), current citation rate: 6,000 new citations per month (among the 6 scientists worldwide who are currently the most commonly cited). When contrasted against my vast ignorance, these values offer excellent proof that citation metrics can be horribly unreliable. I have no personal social media accounts - I admire people who can outpour their error-free wisdom in them, but I make a lot of errors, I need to revisit my writings multiple times before publishing, and I see no reason to make a fool of myself more frequently than it is sadly unavoidable. I consider myself privileged to have learned and to continue to learn from interactions with students and young scientists (of all ages) from all over the world and I love to be constantly reminded that I know next to nothing.
