Ioannis P. Androulakis
Rutgers University Professor & Chair, ISoP Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Special Interest Group
My name is Ioannis (Yannis) P. Androulakis, and I currently serve as the Chair of the QSP SIG of the IsoP. I am a chemical engineer by training and completed my BS studies in Athens, Greece. I then moved to Purdue University in Indiana, where I obtained my MS and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. I then spent 2.5 years as a research associate at Princeton University before joining the Corporate Strategic Research Laboratories of ExxonMobil in Annandale, NJ. I spent nine beautiful years there doing research in modeling complex systems and “extracting knowledge from large datasets,” which is what we used to call machine learning at that time! I eventually concluded that teaching meant a lot to me, plus I get very excited by pursuing almost random scientific explorations, often changing direction and interests. So, I decided to move back to academia. I had already switched my research interests and was primarily interested in using complex mathematical modeling to make sense of large, diverse data.
Early in my academic career, I was fortunate to “run into” Bill Jusko, someone well-known in the IsoP community. Meeting him was a significant milestone, and through my interactions with him, I was slowly drawn to the beautiful world of “physicochemical” modeling and its immense opportunities. I was involved with QSP since its formal inception as a participant in the infamous NIH meeting in 2007. Naturally, this led me to the fantastic ISoP community, which has become my scientific home. I was delighted to be elected to the leadership team of the QSP SIG, which I now have the honor of chairing. I am having a blast meeting so many outstanding members of the ISoP community and trying to advance our technical, professional, and scientific goals. I look forward to contributing to the ISoP society and community in different positions once my term ends.
I must admit that I consider my most significant, impactful accomplishment and joy to be the almost 20 Ph.D. students I have had the pleasure of advising so far. Most of them are now established QSP leaders themselves, and I look forward to helping the number of QSPers grow even bigger in the near future!
On a personal note, I enjoy my summer vacations in Greece, I absolutely adore classical music, especially piano, and my goal is to spend as much time as possible (while I physically still can) playing tennis, a sport that I have loved and played for decades! I reside in Princeton, NJ, with my wonderful wife, Dr. Marianthi Ierapetritou, the Bob and Jane Centennial Chair of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, at the University of Delaware, and our fantastic daughter Anna Themis, who just started high school. If you are ever in the area, please drop by!