About Dr. VA Shiva Ayyadurai

Systems Health™ was developed by Dr. VA Shiva Ayyadurai, a renowned systems scientist and computational systems biology expert. He teaches Systems Visualization, a pioneering new course at MIT, in the Department of Comparative Media Studies. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of the International Center for Integrative Systems located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is passionate about integrating both Eastern and Western systems of medicine to create a new convergent medicine that is fully consistent with the scientific method.

Dr. Ayyadurai became intrigued with medicine at the age of five, as he observed his grandmother, a farmer and healer in the small village of Muhavur in South India, apply the ancient healing tradition of Siddha to heal and support local villagers.

These early experiences drove him to pursue the study of modern Western science, technology, and Eastern medicine, with the aim of becoming a scientist and healer. Over the last three decades, his formal scientific research and study has focused on developing new systems for pattern analysis across multiple disciplines. In parallel, he has trained in many Eastern modalities, including various forms of yoga, meditation, and nutritional and herbal medicines, learning from esteemed sages and masters in the oral tradition. In 2007, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study traditional medicines and systems biology.

Dr. Ayyadurai holds four degrees from MIT, including a B.A. in electrical engineering and computer science, and a dual master’s degree in mechanical engineering and visual studies from the MIT Media Laboratory. He completed his Ph.D. in systems biology at the Department of Biological Engineering, where he developed CytoSolve, a scalable computational platform for dynamic integration of molecular pathways models. The website vashiva.com provides a gateway to learn the power of the systems approach to all aspects of life.