Dr. Andrew Koutnik is a research scientist whose career bridges cutting-edge science, elite performance, and personal experience living with type 1 diabetes for over 17 years. His work focuses on how nutrition, metabolism, and lifestyle can be leveraged to maximize human health, performance, and resilience across diverse conditions—from chronic disease to extreme environments.
Dr. Koutnik earned his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences (Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology) from the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. Prior to joining FSU, Dr. Koutnik served as a Faculty/Principal Investigator at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. His research has spanned over $70,000,000 in research funding, including NASA missions, U.S. Special Operations Command, Defense Advanced Research Projects, Office of Naval Research, Department of Defense, and NIH-funded clinical trials, investigating the role of nutrition and metabolism in health, disease, and high-performance contexts resulting in over 100 scientific publications and/or international presentations, including awards/recognition from NASA, Presidential Fellowship, Endocrine Society, Physiological Society, Health Equity Action Network, USF Academy of Inventors, amongst others.
As faculty at Florida State University’s Institute for Sports Science and Medicine, Dr. Koutnik leads and collaborates on projects at the intersection of exercise physiology, cardiometabolic health, and therapeutic nutrition. His ongoing NIH- and DoD-supported studies explore dietary strategies for type 1 and type 2 diabetes, obesity, sleep, and elite performance under metabolic stress. He is also actively involved in international collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, University of Washington School of Medicine, University of British Columbia Breakthrough Type 1 Diabetes Center of Excellence, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, amongst others.
At the core of his mission is a commitment to maximizing metabolic health and performance—advancing evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle strategies, and empowering individuals to thrive in the face of chronic disease and extreme demands, including elite performers.
Dr. Koutnik has returned home to Tallahassee and Florida State University, where he lives with his wife Kelly, their two energetic sons, and their beloved pets—Cocoa (dog) and Professor Peaches (cat). Outside the lab, he finds joy in training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and staying active through both strength and endurance exercise.