Biographies of the Members of the Services and Communications Committee
Tessa van der Merwe (chair)
Svetoslav Handjiev
Ismail Noor
Pallavi Patankar
Kirsi Pietiläinen
Arya Sharma
Professor Tessa van der Merwe MBChB, FCP(SA), PhD
Prof. van der Merwe has been active in the field of obesity for 20 years and has established South Africa as one of the developing world countries that is at the cutting edge of delivering world class management in the field of obesity. She has taken a research initiative in South Africa, and has published in cited international journals and has given plenary lectures at local and international congresses. The faculty of Health Science of the Witwatersrand of which she was a staff member and during which time she was appointed as Associate Professor of Endocrinology from 1984 - 2005, awarded her the Highest Research Award in 2001. In addition she has received a number of awards for outstanding publications.
She has in excess of 55 publications in the field of obesity, metabolism and endocrinology, and has contributed to obesity study modules for the FPD. In 2006 she wrote a manual on obesity management guidelines for South Africa. Currently she serves on the editorial board of 2 journals. She has handled more than 200 media and television interviews regarding obesity and related disorders. Professor Tess van der Merwe is currently the honorary secretary for IASO (International Association for the Study of Obesity). She is also the Honorary Life President of the South African Society for Obesity Metabolism (SASOM).
Currently she is heading up a portfolio to establish Centres of Bariatric Excellence throughout Southern Africa, and acts as a Director for CORE (Centre for Obesity Research and Education) at Unitas Hospital. She holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Pretoria, Department of Endocrinology.
She has been the recipient of several research grants. Her research interests include:
- Investigating in vivo and in vitro adipose tissue lipolysis and relating these findings to intermediary metabolism
- Quantification of body composition and body fat distribution using CT and MRI scanning
- The relationship between obesity and Type 2 Diabetes is researched, both in terms of the relative insulinopenic Black genotype / phenotype, as well as the hyperinsulinemic White population
- Cellular obesity metabolism & adipocyte culture studies in the field of obesity and endocrinology
- The outcome of interventional obesity, diabetic and hypertensive studies
- Obesity genetics and pharmacogenetics
Svetoslav Handjiev
Ismail Noor
Dr. (Mrs.) Pallavi Patankar passed her B.A .M.S in 1983 at Bombay University and completed an internship in 1984. Since then she has been doing general practice at Vile parle. From 1990 to March 1991 she worked as RMO at Evangeline Booth Hospital – Salavation Army in Ahmednagar and then moved on to work at the Desai Maternity and Obstetric Hospital in Malad from April 1991 to June 1994. She then worked at an Obesity centre in Bandra with Dr Shaphique Pathan from 1994 to April 1999. Since April 1999 she has been working as Obesity Consultant in Vile parle. She is one of the founder and executive members of All India Association for Advancing Research in obesity ALL India AARO and was elected Vice President of AI-AARO in November 2004. She has passed a course in fitness and nutrition and works as an Ayurvedic and obesity consultant attached to Swami Prakash Anand Research Centre Juhu. Moreover, she works as Health Consultant to Parle Products - Marketing division group. Pallavi Patankar has actively participated and helped in organizing obesity camps, conferences and training programmes for doctors and dietitians. After acquiring a certificate in yoga with distinction through Bombay University in April 2003, she obtained her diploma in yoga a year later. She appeared for the Advance Diploma in yoga through Mumbai University in March 2005 and passed through 1st class. Pallavi Patankar is especially interested in Swasth Vrutt - a branch in Ayurveda which deals with maintaining good health and prevention of diseases to a great extent and is committed to raising awareness of hazards linked to obesity.
Kirsi Pietiläinen, MD
Kirsi Pietiläinen earned her M.D. (2001), Ph.D. in obesity research (2004) and Master's degree in nutrition (1994) from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Currently resident in internal medicine and researcher at the Obesity Research Unit, Helsinki University Central Hospital, she actively pursues studies focusing on genetic and environmental causes and consequences of obesity. Her main research interests are twin studies and the global metabolic profiling of obesity by systems biology methods, transcriptomics and metabolomics. Dr Pietiläinen is the president of the Finnish Association for the Study of Obesity. She took the initiate of establishing the Young Investigators United -network of EASO in 2005.
Arya M. Sharma, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Arya M. Sharma is Professor of Medicine and Chair of Obesity Research and Management at the University of Alberta. He is also the Medical Director of the Capital Health Regional Weight Wise Program and the Scientific Director of the federally-funded Canadian Obesity Network. Past appointments include Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cardiovascular Obesity Research and Management and Professor of Medicine at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and Director of The Centre for Cardiovascular Obesity Research and Management at the Hamilton General Hospital. Until 2002, he was Professor of Medicine, Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, at the Franz-Volhard-Klinik–Charité in Berlin, Germany. His research focuses on the environmental and biological causes of obesity and an evidence-based approach to managing obese patients. He is also working on the development of novel interventions for treating obese patients and people with a propensity for obesity. Scientific associations of which he is a member include the Canadian, American and International Societies of Hypertension and is a fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association. Dr. Sharma is on the editorial boards of several journals and has authored or coauthored more than 230 scientific articles. He has also lectured widely on the etiology and management of hypertension, obesity, and related cardiovascular disorders. Dr. Sharma graduated from the Free University Berlin, Germany and holds postdoctoral degrees in internal medicine and nephrology.
www.drsharma.ca
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