IASO AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE 2010
The Wertheimer Award (Basic research): Gokhan Hotamisligil
Dr. Hotamisligil is currently the James S. Simmons Professor of Genetics and Metabolism and the Chair of the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases at Harvard University’s School of Public Health. He is also an Associate Member of the Harvard-MIT Broad Institute and Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Dr. Hotamisligil’s research efforts focus on the genetic and molecular basis of common and complex diseases, particularly obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. His research examines the molecular mechanisms of nutrient sensing and response pathways as they relate to physiological metabolic homeostasis and also to the pathologies that emerge from its alterations. He is a globally recognized leader in his field and has made seminal contributions in these areas demonstrating that inflammation is at the heart of obesity and type 2 diabetes and uncovering key mechanisms linking nutrients, metabolism, and immune response. Dr. Hotamisligil continues to be active in these areas and to pursue new interdisciplinary paths as he aims to develop novel preventive and therapeutic strategies and drugs at various stages of clinical and preclinical testing. Dr. Hotamisligil has been recognized with awards from the Markey, Pew, and Sandler Foundations, the American Diabetes Association, and the National Institute of Health. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award of the American Diabetes Association and in 2010 he was elected as the fellow of the AAAS.
This award is sponsored by
IASO AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE 2010
The Population Science and Public Health Award: Thorkild Sørensen
Thorkild I.A. Sørensen, born in 1945, became MD in 1971 and achieved the doctoral degree (Dr Med Sci) in 1983 at the University of Copenhagen. He received his clinical training at several university hospitals in Copenhagen, and became chairman of the department of emergency admissions and chief physician at the department of hepatology at Hvidovre University Hospital in 1988. In 1989, he received a 5-year position as MRC professor of clinical epidemiology, and at the end of this period in 1994,
he was appointed as full professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen in combination with a position as chief physician in clinical epidemiology at the Copenhagen Hospital Corporation. In 1993, he became Director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine. He was Dean of the Faculty in 1995-96. He has published more than 300 papers in international peerreviewed journals with several papers in high-impact journals (see link or PubMed ‘Sorensen TI’). The main topics of his research have been various aspects of obesity, alcohol drinking, liver and gastrointestinal disorders, addressed by methods in clinical, genetic and general epidemiology. He is coordinator of several national and international research projects and networks. He has been and is advisor, supervisor or reviewer of multiple doctoral and PhD dissertations, and has been involved in establishing a graduate school in public health sciences. He has served as scientific advisor or reviewer for many different national and international institutions, organisations and journals.
IASO AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE 2010
The Andre Mayer Award: Matthias H. Tschöp
Dr. Matthias Tschöp is a Professor of Medicine and the Assoc. Director for Basic Research of the Obesity & Diabetes Center of Excellence at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA). He leads a laboratory for translational diabetes and obesity research at the UC Metabolic Diseases Institute. His work aims to discover and dissect neuroendocrine and peripheral signaling pathways that regulate energy, glucose and lipid metabolism with the ultimate goal to develop novel therapeutics. Dr. Tschöp has discovered the effects of ghrelin on body weight and food intake and was the first to describe that ghrelin secretion and activation is regulated by caloric intake, diet exposure and body fat. Recently he has reported potent body weight and glucose lowering of novel single molecule gut hormone chimerae, which combine actions profiles of metabolism control peptides.
This award is sponsored by Cambridge Weight Plan.
IASO AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE 2010
The Willendorf Award (Clinical research): Eric Ravussin
Eric Ravussin, PhD is a Douglas L. Gordon Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. There, he is also Chief and Professor in the Department of Health and Performance Enhancement and the Director of the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center in Baton Rouge. He received his PhD in human physiology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Dr. Ravussin is an internationally recognized translational investigator in obesity and diabetes research. He has presented at conferences around the world important clinical and molecular data related to the patho-physiology of obesity and/or diabetes. Over the past 8 years, Dr Ravussin has also been awarded many grants from the National Institute on Aging. He is now presenting novel data on the impact of caloric restriction on human biomarkers of aging and longevity at meetings such as Keystone Symposia on “Metabolic Pathways of Longevity” and at Biology of Aging Gordon Research Conferences on the “Mechanisms of Aging: Key Effectors and Rationale Targets”.
Dr. Ravussin has been an active member of The Obesity Society, serving on the Council, program committee and as a former President of the Society from 2006-2008. He has also been the recipient of multiple awards including: the 1990-IASO Andre Mayer award for outstanding contributions to research in the field of obesity in Kobe, Japan; the 2001 E.V. McCollum Award for actively generating new concepts in nutrition and personally seeing to the execution of studies testing the validity of these concepts (American Society for Clinical Nutrition) and the 2006 TOPS Award (The Obesity Society).
This award is sponsored by informa healthcare
IASO NEW INVESTIGATOR AWARD 2010
IASO is searching for the most outstanding International New Investigator in the field of obesity research.
Five candidates were shortlisted for the New Investigator Award as per listed below:
• Marco Bueter
• Susan Carnell
• Jean-Philippe Chaput
• K irsi Pietiläinen
• Jonatan Ruiz
Travelling fellowship awards 2010
IASO TRAVEL GRANT WINNERS 2010
Kiymet Bozaoglu, Australia
Michal Holecki, Poland
Chrystalleni Lazarou, Cyprus
Albino Jorge Oliveira-Maia, Portugal
Sanghamitra Pati, India
Nobuko Yamada, Japan
For further information about the IASO Awards please write to awards@iaso.org
