{"id":29431,"date":"2025-09-08T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=29431"},"modified":"2025-09-09T08:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:40:12","slug":"profile-in-technology-izi-roussel-from-chemistry-labs-to-code-and-a-few-spells-in-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2025\/09\/08\/profile-in-technology-izi-roussel-from-chemistry-labs-to-code-and-a-few-spells-in-between\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile in Technology – Izi Roussel: From Chemistry Labs to Code and a Few Spells in Between"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Isaac<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Note:<\/strong> Izi is a dedicated life-long learner and, as soon as AI models came out for use, he began toying with them and training his chat bot. After Brian approached Izi about an article, Izi had an idea. This article was initially drafted by his own agent fed with some information Izi provided about himself. Editing then took place by Brian and Izi.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Isaac (Izi) Roussel never planned on a career in IT. In fact, he was perfectly happy in a chemistry lab until the spreadsheets started calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was working as a chemist and our lab had this massive data problem,\u201d Isaac recalls. \u201cEverything was done with pen and paper. I was the only one who wasn\u2019t terrified of the IBM PC in the corner. So I started poking around with Lotus 1-2-3. No hard drive. Just me, a floppy disk, and a spreadsheet that blinked like it knew something I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That blink turned into a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With that small change, efficiency went way up. He ended up leading a project to integrate raw data from all of the lab\u2019s hundreds of instruments into a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) that could generate customized reports to clients. In the course of that project, he went back to school and took programming classes. The company also sent him for Oracle training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He later transitioned into finance as a programmer and grew into leading a large software development team. \u201cIt turns out I was better at organizing data and solving tech problems than titrating acids and bases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Izi is the Education Systems Manager for the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Michigan Medicine. He\u2019s working with the HITS team to build a Salesforce-based trainee tracking system that helps the school manage graduate education and training grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the kind of system that sounds boring\u2014until you realize how many people depend on it to do their jobs well,\u201d he says. \u201cI love making things that make other people\u2019s work easier. That\u2019s what IT should be: serving the customer, not the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside of work, Isaac\u2019s resume takes a turn for the epic. He\u2019s a fantasy writer. He has two novels in progress, one set right at the University of Michigan, and has written several short stories published on Substack. He is also a seasoned Dungeon Master (gaming since 1977) and a lifelong lover of sci-fi and mythology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was the kid reading Tolkien and sketching out Elvish alphabets in the margins of my homework,\u201d he says. \u201cI also played around with Egyptian hieroglyphs and even tried to teach myself some Klingon. Languages are a passion\u2014I\u2019ve studied French, German, Hebrew, and for the last four years, Spanish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But wait, that\u2019s not all. Izi is also a rabbi. “Yeah,” he says, grinning. \u201cOn the side.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Izi treasures time with his wife and their three grown children. His wife recently retired from a long career in the insurance industry. Their oldest, after earning a PhD at the University of Michigan, now works with Jewish Family Services, helping refugees build new lives. One of their children supports kids who struggle with academics and life skills, while another applies technical know-how working with computers at Geek Squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaac also spent five years teaching chemistry at a local community college. Nowadays, he\u2019s exploring how AI tools can help streamline IT operations and enhance user support. \u201cI love learning,\u201d he says. \u201cAlways have. If I\u2019m not growing, I feel like I\u2019m standing still.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back, he sees a strange kind of logic in his path. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a straight line, but everything connected. Chemistry, programming, leadership, spiritual care, storytelling\u2014it\u2019s all about solving problems and helping people. That\u2019s the thread.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet Izi Roussel, education systems manager for the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Michigan Medicine. He’s a life-long learner, chemist, programmer, and fantasy writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":29437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[188,509],"class_list":["post-29431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-people","tag-profile-1"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1.jpg",450,338,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1-400x266.jpg",400,266,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1.jpg",450,338,false],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1.jpg",450,338,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1.jpg",450,338,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1.jpg",450,338,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1-60x42.jpg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1-450x300.jpg",450,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1.jpg",450,338,false],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Izi-Brian-Simko-1-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Brian Simko, HITS","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/bsimko\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"Meet Izi Roussel, education systems manager for the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Michigan Medicine. He's a life-long learner, chemist, programmer, and fantasy writer.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29431"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29438,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29431\/revisions\/29438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}