ESP Biography



CONSTANTINE PSIMOPOULOS, Harvard Bioethicist+MIT Lecturer, Ethics &Olympics




Major: HMS Center for Bioethics

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: Not available.

Picture of Constantine Psimopoulos

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Constantine or 'Kosti' is a Kinesiologist by training and a Harvard Medical School trained bioethicist, where he was the valedictorian and President of the Student Council. He has been working on the development of a new course on Racism in Health and Scientific Research at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. CHAN School of Public Health Since with an MIT Alumna, and is a Faculty member (Instructor) of Ethics in Human Subjects Research at Johns Hopkins University.

Kosti returned to Harvard after having served as an Administrative and Lab Coordinator at the Harvard-MIT program in Health Sciences and Technology based at MIT, and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), running all administrative aspects of the labs of Alex Shalek and Jim Collins. Through that role, he has been affiliated with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as an associated staff member, as well as the Ragon Institute of Mass General Hospital (MGH), and the Wyss Institute of Harvard Medical School. In August of 2019, he was appointed as Broad Institute Campus Ambassador and more recently an I.D.E.A (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Allyship) Ambassador.

Although he is an American since he was born a United States citizen (at the time of his birth in Thessaloniki, both his father and mother were US citizens of Greek origin who emigrated to this country for graduate studies), Constantine has always identified as a proud Greek. Heeding the call to duty and always eager to serve his motherland, Constantine took an administrative position working as a Consular Officer for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston, mostly around cultural, science and sport diplomacy, before returning to his academic life at MIT.

Since 2015, he has been asked to teach a fall session on Ethics in Sport / Sport Philosophy by fellow Harvard cyclist and MIT alumnus, Professor Bernhard Nickel in the Philosophy Department, and since 2018, he has been a Visiting Lecturer in Prof. Karatsolis Writing and Rhetoric: Writing About Sports Class, teaching about Ethics in Sport and Olympic Values at MIT.

Constantine has been the Fitness Manager and Instructor at the historic Hemenway Gymnasium of Harvard University Athletics / Recreation. Founder of the Modern Olympic Movement Baron Pierre de Coubertin visited this site in 1889, and saw the Discobolus, famous statue (roman replica) of an Ancient Greek Olympic athlete that President Everett of Harvard ordered to be erected on its grounds in 1865. In that role as Hemenway Fitness Manager, Constantine was charged with supervising the personal training program and the instructional physical activity classes that were taught in the facility, along with the hiring, leadership and guidance of the instructors and fitness staff. He also served as a community adviser for wellness in the Harvard Graduate Commons program and is married to a Harvard Classics Faculty member and PhD in the Classics department, Calliope Dourou-Psimopoulos.

A former competitive Olympic level athlete, National and Balkan Champion cyclist, Constantine aka Coach Psi Ψ, led the MIT Mountain Bike team onto a USA Collegiate National Championship in 2016, and formerly worked as the Assistant Director of the Zesiger Sports & Fitness Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

H15675: Bioethics and the Olympics in Splash 2023 (Nov. 18 - 19, 2023)
Would you sacrifice your health and well being in order to win Olympic Gold? You probably shouldn’t but some actually are willing to cheat, use performance enhancing drugs, and any means necessary to do so! Come and learn why this goes against the spirit of Olympism, find out what real Olympic Champions do, how they think, get advice from an Olympic level cyclist, and leave a better and more ethical person knowing a lot more about the meaning of life, exciting cases from part Olympic Games, hold an actual Olympic medal in your hand and have a chance to examine your own life!


H15291: Bioethics and the Olympics in Splash 2022 (Nov. 19 - 20, 2022)
Would you sacrifice your health and well being in order to win Olmypic Gold? You probably shouldn’t but some actually are willing to cheat, use performance enhanci mg drugs, and any means necessary to do so! Come an learn why this goes against the spirit of Olympism, find out what real Olmypic Champions do, how they think, get advice from an Olympic level cyclist, and leave a better and more ethical person knowing a lot more about the meaning of life, exciting cases from part Olympic Games, hold an actual Olympic medal in your hand and have a chance to examine your own life!