Ilias Siempos MD, DSc

Dr Siempos has pursued an academic career as a clinician-scientist in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He graduated (M.D.) in the top 1% of his class from the University of Thessaloniki-Medical School, Greece, and earned a doctorate (D.Sc.) with Excellence in Critical Care Medicine from the University of Athens, Greece. He won a number of national honorary scholarships and early awards. He trained at the Department of Critical Care and Pulmonary Services, Evangelismos Hospital, University of Athens before he moved as a post-doctoral fellow to the United States, firstly at Harvard Medical School and then at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he currently serves as faculty.

Since his graduation, as a clinician, he enjoyed caring for critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation. The clinical challenges of such patients incited his interest in the main reasons (namely, acute respiratory failure/acute lung injury due to respiratory tract infections and sepsis) for and complications (namely, ventilator-associated pneumonia and ventilator-induced lung injury) of mechanical ventilation. As a researcher, he strives to understand these interconnected clinical entities using a variety of appropriate methodological tools, such as animal models; translational research; clinical outcomes research, and meta-analyses. His publication record includes 65 peer-reviewed papers and has received over 2200 citations in the literature with a Hirsch index of h= 30 (according to Scopus). Trying to maintain a broad perspective, he is also interested in the history of medicine. He enjoys learning from interactions with other clinicians and/or scientists and he is committed to mentoring.