Dear Fellow Members:

I had the pleasure last week of having lunch with The Obesity Society's home office staff in Silver Spring, MD. It was a wonderful occasion to welcome Morgan Downey as our society's new Executive Vice President. Morgan officially began his position the day after Labor Day but had been meeting throughout the summer with staff. Much to the staff's relief, and mine, he seems more than ready for our Annual Scientific Meeting in October!

Morgan is well known to members of our society, principally in his former position as Executive Director of the American Obesity Association (AOA). As a seasoned attorney, Morgan has patiently and effectively petitioned government agencies to recognize obesity as a disease and to improve access to care for persons affected by this condition. He has similarly been a tireless advocate, on both Capitol Hill and the NIH campus, for increased funding for obesity research. Morgan understands the critically important role of science in responding to our nation's epidemic of obesity. Our society is very fortunate to have someone with Morgan's vision, initiative, and knowledge of obesity to serve as our Executive Vice President. Please join me in welcoming him.

On behalf of our society, I want to thank Drs. Richard Atkinson and Judith Stern, two of NAASO's former presidents, for encouraging Morgan to apply for our position. Drs. Atkinson and Stern founded AOA in 1995 because of their desire to increase efforts to advocate on behalf of obesity scientists and clinicians, as well as on behalf of citizens who are affected by obesity. Dick and Judy, as President and Vice President of AOA, respectively, identified critical public policy issues that needed to be addressed and then identified Morgan to join in their efforts. The three of them, with their Board of Directors, have enjoyed many successes on behalf of scientists, practitioners, and the public.

I am delighted to announce that, as of September 5th, AOA has become a part of NAASO - The Obesity Society. NAASO's Council and AOA's Board of Directors both thought this was an ideal time for our two organizations to unite in our collective efforts, particularly given Morgan's new position with our society. As reported in a press release last week, AOA is now a part of The Obesity Society but will retain its separate, legal status. We will continue to support AOA's excellent Web site to educate the public about obesity. AOA's role as an advocate for scientific research, as well as for increasing patients' access to obesity treatments, will continue with The Obesity Society.

This is an exciting time for The Obesity Society, full of challenges and opportunities. In closing, I want to thank Ann Kenworthy, our Interim Executive Director, for guiding our society so effectively during the past year. Members of Council join me in wishing her every success in her next position, as we do Morgan in his new role with our society.

Tom Wadden
President

The Obesity Society Council and staff warmly welcome Morgan Downey and Latoya Martin to the headquarters team. Morgan officially began his tenure as the new Executive Vice President on September 5th (see his message below).

Latoya Martin joined the staff on August 30th as the new Membership Assistant. She is responsible for anything related to membership, and welcomes your questions and suggestions. Latoya can be reached at lmartin@naaso.org.

My first day as the new executive vice president, the day after Labor Day, was cold, wet and stormy in Silver Spring. It did not look like a good omen. But it wasn't an omen at all. Ann Kenworthy, who has brilliantly managed the society in this interim, has been briefing me on aspects of the office for the last month. Tom Wadden came down from Philadelphia and took the whole staff out to lunch to welcome me. It felt very good being in the director's chair.

As you may know, the American Obesity Association was born out of NAASO - The Obesity Society. We shared many presidents, officers and board members. So it was no accident that we had discussions off and on for many years about merging the two organizations. But it was not until this year and the search for the new director that things really got rolling.

Some people believe that science and advocacy do not and cannot mix. I hope that the experience of the American Obesity Association has helped dispel that belief. If we are to truly address the profound problems of obesity, science and advocacy must find a way to work in a mutually complimentary fashion. The Obesity Society has taken a big step in hiring only its second executive director. I hope to be able to earn the confidence in me which is demonstrated by this action. I have known many society members since my very first days in the field. I look forward to building an association of which we can be proud and an association which will be recognized for its significant contributions to the most prevalent, fatal, chronic disease of the 21st Century - obesity. I am anxious to work with each Obesity Society member in achieving these goals.

Morgan Downey
Executive Vice President

Completed ballots for Council vice president and councilors are due in the society's headquarters office by September 15th. You may fax your ballot to 301- 563-6595, or mail it to The Obesity Society, 8630 Fenton Street, Suite 918, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

A ballot and background information concerning a proposed change in the bylaws of NAASO - The Obesity Society was mailed to all Fellows on September 11th. Completed ballots must be returned to the headquarters office by Friday, November 10, 2006.

The National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be facilitating a workshop entitled Predictors, Pathogenesis, and Prevention of Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes. The meeting will be held October 4-5, 2006, in the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda,MD. For information and registration: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/fund/other/3p sofinsulin/index.htm

The new interactive symposium series Frontiers in Medicine will launch October 25th from 1:00 PM- 5:00 PM with its first program entitled Obesity and Metabolic Dysfunction, featuring guest speaker David Allison, PhD. The series will highlight prominent emerging themes in both clinical and translational investigation on the medical campus. The October 25th program will be held at Boston University School of Medicine, 14th floor, Hebert Lounge. For more information, contact drlobel@bu.edu or call 617-638-4885.

ECO2007: From Cell to Society, the 15th European Congress on Obesity, is scheduled for April 22-25, 2007 in Budapest, Hungary. Sponsored by The Hungarian Society for the Study of Obesity (HSSO) and the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), the scientific program will include plenary lectures, review sessions, and workshops. Online abstract submission is now open, and abstracts are due by November 1st. For more information, visit www.eco2007.org.

In case you missed it, the New York Times Sunday magazine ran a cover story on August 13, 2006 entitled =93Microbesity?=94 by Robin Marantz Henig. The article featured the work on an obesity virus started by two members of The Obesity Society: Richard L. Atkinson and Nikhil Dhurandhar.

David Cai, PhD, joins Cognis Nutrition & Health as senior scientist responsible for managing scientific research projects in North America. He was previously senior technology scientist overseeing nutrition-focused programs at the William Wrigley Jr. Company.

News from the East
By Kathleen Keller

Melissa Kalarchian, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) has joined the Editorial Board of Bariatric Nursing and Surgical Patient Care. This journal provides cutting-edge research, clinical protocols, and practical tools to provide optimal care for seriously obese patients. Dr. Kalarchian would like to encourage members of The Obesity Society to consider submitting original papers, clinical reviews, profiles of successful bariatric surgical programs, and case reports.

Barry Popkin, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, presented an invited talk at the International Agricultural Economics Congress in Brisbane in August on =93The Nutrition Transition in High- and Low-Income Countries: What are the Policy Lessons?=94 In September at the first International Public Health Nutrition Congress, he is presenting the closing talk =93What can PH nutritionists do to curb the epidemic of nutrition related chronic disease?=94 Earlier in May he presented two talks on the state of the Russian economy and health status in Moscow, and spoke at a national conference he organized with the Chinese Nutrition Society in Beijing on edible oils, health and obesity. His presentation was a case study on the potential effects of price changes on oil intake and macronutrient intake patterns in China.

Penny Gordon-Larsen presented an invited talk at the American Diabetes Association in June, titled =93Environmental Contributions to Childhood Obesity.=94

Jennifer Nasser, PhD, RD and Allan Geliebter, PhD will present a workshop on differences in physiological and psychological regulation of food intake in obesity and binge eating disorder for the Renfrew Conference, Nov 9-12, 2006 in Philadelphia, PA. Additionally, Dr Nasser will discuss integration of the Nutrition Assessment Process with the DSM-IV evaluation for Binge Eating Disorder as a proposed method for identifying physiological mediators of "loss of control" over eating, a major feature of binge eating disorder.

From the South
By Steven R. Smith

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center recently announced the addition of several new faculty in obesity and related disorders: Donald Ingram, PhD [mechanisms of aging - from the National Institute on Aging], Tim Church, MD, PhD, MPH [exercise and health - from the Cooper Institute], Claudia Kappen, PhD [maternal/developmental biology - from the University of Nebraska Medical Center], and Michael Salbaum, PhD [molecular genetics - also from the University of Nebraska Medical Center].

The Pennington Center also announced the opening of a new 3T magnetic resonance spectrometer dedicated to obesity and metabolic research. The magnet, under the direction of Steven R. Smith, MD, will be used for existing and new clinical investigations into the structural and functional underpinnings of obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

From the West
By Judith Stern

CALIFORNIA
Melina B Jampolis (physician nutrition specialist) has a book coming out in January entitled The No Time to Lose Diet, published by Thomas Nelsona and available for pre-order on Amazon.

WASHINGTON
David E. Cummings (Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Washington) was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

An article entitled "Central Nervous System Control of Food Intake and Body Weight" by GJ Morton, D Cummings, DG Baskin, GS Barsh, and MW Schwartz (University of Washington) will be published in Nature this fall.

Adam Drewnowski (Director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition & Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine) gave a presentation on the economics of obesity at the Universidad N=E1cional de San Martin, Buenos Aires, Argentina.