"Excellence is not an individual thing, it’s not something that happens in a vacuum," said Dr. Tassos Kyriakides, PhD ‘99, assistant professor of biostatistics, while accepting the Award for Excellence from the Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health (AYAPH).
Although the award honors one individual for their outstanding contributions to public health, "I couldn't have done what I'm doing without these people," he said, citing fellow alumni, colleagues, alumni board members, staff, and students.
Originally from Cyprus, Kyriakides had planned to attend medical school until former NBA star Magic Johnson’s HIV diagnosis prompted him to think of human health from a different perspective. Instead of becoming a physician, he focused on population health, studying infectious diseases at the Yale School of Public Health.
While at Yale to pursue his PhD, Kyriakides discovered a passion for clinical study design while taking nearly every biostatistics class. “I wanted to be able to interpret and translate what the data shows,” he said.
Throughout his career, he has valued collaborations with colleagues and the communities he serves. As director of the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center in West Haven, he studied HIV/AIDS management and HIV drug resistance and how employment can be used to ensure social recovery of veterans with PTSD. For a behavioral intervention study in New Haven, he collaborated with a Yale School of Medicine investigator to assess whether a video game, PlayForward, could reduce teens’ risky behavior while improving their sexual health knowledge.
A certified olive oil sommelier, he collaborates in research to assess olive oil’s effect on Alzheimer’s disease, the gut microbiome, and athletic performance, and how table olives can potentially improve college students’ heart health. He is a proponent of establishing a YSPH entity that will focus on the olive tree, its products, and their impact on human and planetary health.
“I think of ideas that are exciting to me,” he said.
He has co-led the International Yale Symposium on Olive Oil and Health and the Yale Gastronomy and Culture Symposium, in its 7th year and coming to New Haven this December. He is the Immediate Past President of AYAPH, a faculty fellow at Yale’s Saybrook College, and an affiliated faculty member for the Yale Hellenic Studies Program. He is a long-time supporter of the Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge and previously served as a board member and president.
When asked how he manages so many interests—from collaborating on groundbreaking clinical trial research to running olive oil tasting experiential workshops after work—Kyriakides pointed to his eagerness to find answers to scientific questions with colleagues, study participants, and students by his side.