The person behind the letters.

I was born in Larissa, a mid-size city in central Greece, and trained at the University of Thessaly, a school I am proud of, but one far from the capitals that write the rules of academic medicine. Nobody handed me a roadmap to an international academic career. I built one: medical school and a PhD in Greece, a master's at UCL in London, a fellowship at the University of Michigan, and now a faculty position in cardiac surgery research in the United States, with more than two hundred publications along the way.

None of that happened because of pedigree. It happened because publishing, citation, and academic careers follow patterns, and patterns can be learned. That is what I write about every week, and what the assistant helps you apply to your own situation.

If you trained far from the places that write the rules, this place was built for you.

Yours, Dimitri