Tassos C. Kyriakides

Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health; Co-Organizer of the Annual Yale Symposia on Olive Oil & Health; New Haven, USA

Native of Cyprus, completed his B.Sc. as a Fulbright Scholar at UCLA (Biochemistry; 1993) and received his Ph.D. at the Yale School of Public Health (Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases; 1999).

He is an Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) where he helps design and guide and collaborates on numerous clinical research projects. He consults on methodology, data processes and management, and statistical analysis for numerous research protocols; has served as an abstract mentor for researchers at the International AIDS Conferences, mentors graduate students, and is a statistical reviewer for high-impact journals (Lancet Infectious Diseases; Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology). He currently teaches Fundamentals of Clinical Trials, a second year Spring Semester Master’s course at the YSPH.

He is the Director at the US government’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs Cooperative Studies Program (VACSPCC-West Haven, CT), a clinical trials data coordinating center, where he has worked the last 25 years on pivotal trials in: HIV/AIDS treatment (The OPTIMA Trial); surgery (The OVER Trial); PTSD (The VIP-STAR Trial). In his capacity as Director, he currently coordinates and facilitates activities in five clinical trials and a Lung Precision Oncology Program in 112 Veterans’ Affairs Medical Centers across the US.

He is the proponent for the establishment of a program/center at the Yale School of Public Health that will focus on the olive tree and its products, and their effects on human and planetary health. He has co-chaired both the annual International Yale Symposium on Olive Oil and Health since its inception in 2018 and the bi-annual Yale Gastronomy and Culture Symposium since its inception in 2023. He is a certified olive oil sommelier and runs the Yale Oleoteca at the Schwartzmann Center and has participated in several olive-oil related activities on campus in partnership with Yale Hospitality. He frequently gives talks on the health benefits of olive oil, he is the principal investigator of a research project (funding pending) to assess the benefits of table olives on cardiovascular markers among college students and a co-investigator on three research studies assessing the benefits of olive oil on Alzheimer’s disease, the gut microbiome and athletic performance. He is a Legacy Circle member of the Massaro Community Farm, in Woodbridge, CT, the Immediate Past President of the Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health (AYAPH) Board, affiliated faculty with the Yale Hellenic Studies Program and a faculty fellow at Yale’s Saybrook College.