Visiting Research Scientist

Andrew Koutnik is a Visiting Research Scientist at IHMC studying the influence of lifestyle and metabolism on health, disease, and performance. He began his research path at Florida State University  in exercise science.

At FSU, he trained in the Human Sciences Cardiovascular Laboratory studying the influence of nutrition, exercise, supplementation, and environmental extremes on health-based outcomes in normal and clinical populations across cardiovascular, autonomic, and skeletal muscle tissue systems. He then moved into research efforts at FSU’s Human Sciences Cognitive Cardiology Laboratory and FSU’s College of Medicine Cardiac Biomedical Laboratory exploring the impact of cognitive, mental, and prior brain injury status on tissue systems, risk factor modulation, and stress tolerance across pre-clinical and human subjects, including patients with prior cerebrovascular injury. While at FSU, he received the Bess Ward Honor Thesis, Honors Medallion, and ACC Meeting of the Mind awards, and served as a Research Ambassador and Student Mentor for the Honors College and FSU’s Student Council for Research and Creativity.

Andrew was awarded the Presidential Fellowship to attend the University of South Florida where he received his doctorate in biomedical sciences with the Metabolic Medicine Lab in the Morsani College of Medicine. At USF his  research focused on studying metabolism and metabolic therapies for health, disease, and performance outcomes.

He was invited to give a TEDx talk on his personal journey using lifestyle and metabolic factors to manage Type-1 diabetes for more than 14 years. His experience as a metabolic researcher and Type-1 diabetic created a strong appreciation for the role lifestyle and metabolism can play into health modulation, disease prevention, and disease management. He currently is involved in advocacy, education, and research to improve health outcomes across populations.