Thomas A. Wadden Award for Distinguished Mentorship

Lee Kaplan, MD, PhD, FTOS
Director
The Obesity and Metabolism Institute

Created in 2015, the award honors a TOS member for distinguished mentorship of the Society’s early career investigators. The award is named for Professor Thomas A. Wadden, PhD, who mentored many individuals who went on to pursue successful careers in obesity research and clinical care.

TOPS Research Achievement Award

Leanne Redman, PhD, FTOS
LPFA Endowed Fellowship
Associate Executive Director for Scientific Education
Professor
Reproductive Endocrinology & Women’s Health
Pennington Biomedical Research Center

The TOPS Research Achievement Award is for singular achievement or contribution to research in the field of obesity and made possible through an annual grant from the Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS) Foundation.

Jules Hirsch Innovation Award

Anna Grummon, PhD
Assistant Professor
Stanford University School of Medicine

The Innovation award recognizes an early-career investigator whose novel work will significantly impact the field of obesity.

Friends of Albert (Mickey) Stunkard
Lifetime Achievement Award

Susan K. Fried, PhD, FTOS
Professor
Director of Translational Adipose Biology and Obesity
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medicine

The Friends of Albert (Mickey) Stunkard Lifetime Achievement Award is designed to recognize an individual who has made a commitment to the field of obesity in terms of scholarship, mentorship, and education.

Atkinson Stern Award for Distinguished Public Service

Sarah Hampl, MD
Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition
Children’s Mercy Kansas City

This award was established by a donation from Dr. Thomas A. Wadden to recognize an individual or organization whose work has improved the lives of those affected by obesity, whether through research, public policy, or patient care.

The George A. Bray Founders Award

Caroline Apovian, MD, FTOS
Co-Director, Center for Weight Management and Wellness
Professor, Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Center for Weight Management and Wellness

The George A. Bray Founders Award recognizes an individual for significant contributions that advance the scientific or clinical basis for understanding or treating obesity and for extensive involvement with The Obesity Society.

The George A. Bray Doctoral Dissertation Award

Paige Cunningham, PhD
Pennsylvania State University

The award recognizes one student for their doctoral dissertation, which is judged on the significance, scope, innovation, and scientific methodology in the field of obesity.

The George A. Bray Master’s Thesis Award

John Kincaid, MPhil, MS
MD-PhD Candidate
Harvard Medical School

The award recognizes one student for their master’s thesis, which is judged on the significance, scope, innovation, and scientific methodology in the field of obesity.

Justine Mucinski, PhD
Translational Research Institute – AdventHealth

Cody Neshteruk, PhD
Duke University

Ethan Sims Young Investigator Award

The Ethan Sims Young Investigator Award was established in honor of Ethan Sims, an early pioneer in obesity research, and recognizes excellence in research by young investigators. 

Five semifinalists are selected based on their submitted abstracts and are invited to make a presentation during ObesityWeek®.   Two recipients are selected based on their oral presentations, one for Basic Science and the other for Clinical Research. 

The Oded Bar-Or Award

Susan L. Johnson, PhD
Professor
Director, The Children’s Eating Laboratory
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The Oded Bar-Or Award was established in 2007 to honor Oded Bar-Or, a pioneer in children’s health, by the Pediatric Obesity Section of TOS.  This award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to basic and applied pediatric obesity research that have resulted in major advances in the scientific understanding of etiology, prevention, and treatment of pediatric obesity.

The Clinician of the Year Award

Ania Jastreboff, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Yale University
Director, Yale Obesity Research Center (Y-Weight)
Co-Director, Yale Center for Weight Management

The Clinician of the Year Award was founded in 2015 by the Clinical Management of Obesity Section of The Obesity Society. This award signifies excellence in the practice of obesity medicine and distinguishes a physician as having achieved a high level of competency and understanding in obesity care.

The Presidential Medal of Distinction

The Presidential Medal of Distinction was created to honor and recognize the efforts of individuals or organizations who have made an impact on the care of persons with obesity through outstanding and enduring scientific achievements; public service with the aim of improving the health of the public; having made a tenacious and/or bold effort to spotlight obesity-related issues; and advocacy for persons with obesity.

Barbara J. Rolls, PhD, FTOS
Professor and Helen A. Guthrie Chair
Director, Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior
Pennsylvania State University

“In recognition of your discoveries on the role of ingestive behavior and food choice in physiology and obesity prevention, as well as for your service to The Obesity Society.”

Barbara J. Rolls received her Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Cambridge, England. After spending her early research career at the University of Oxford, Dr. Rolls became Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1992, she joined The Pennsylvania State University faculty, where she is Professor and Helen A. Guthrie Chair of Nutritional Sciences.

Her studies have demonstrated how characteristics of foods such as variety, energy density, and portion size can influence energy intake and weight management. She has authored seven books including three in the Volumetrics series.

Dr. Rolls has served as President of both the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior and The Obesity Society, and has served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Her awards and honors include Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Honorary Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, International Award for Modern Nutrition, Atwater Lecturer, American Society for Nutrition (ASN) Award in Human Nutrition, The Obesity Society’s George A. Bray Founders Award, ASN Fellow, ASN David Kritchevsky Career Achievement Award, the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior Hoebel Award for Creativity, and the ASN Foundation Mentorship Award.

Rena Wing, PhD, FTOS
Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Brown University
Director of the Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center
The Miriam Hospital

“In recognition of your discoveries in the area of body weight regulation and the behavioral and physiological factors that influence weight maintenance, as well as for your service to The Obesity Society.

Dr. Rena Wing is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Director of the Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center at The Miriam Hospital.

Dr. Wing is well known for her programmatic research investigating the most effective strategies for long-term weight loss and weight gain prevention in overweight children and adults. She was responsible for designing and implementing the lifestyle intervention in the Diabetes Prevention Program, an NIH multi-center trial that provides the strongest proof to date of health benefits of weight loss. Dr. Wing has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles and mentored many junior faculty members studying behavioral weight control.

Dr. Wing received her Ph.D. degree in Social Relations from Harvard University in 1971 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Mental Health Center. She spent 25 years at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (University of Pittsburgh), where she was a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology and the Director of the NIDDK funded Obesity/Nutrition Research Center before moving to Brown Medical School in 1998.