Thomas A. Wadden Award for Distinguished Mentorship
Leanne Redman, PhD, FTOS
LPFA Endowed Fellowship
Associate Executive Director for Scientific Education
Professor, Pennington Biomedical Research Center
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
Steven R. Smith, MD, FTOS
Chief Scientific Officer
Senior Vice President, AdventHealth Research Institute
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.
American Board of Obesity Medicine
Thomas Inge, MD, PhD, FTOS, DABOM
Associate Surgeon-in-Chief
Akers Endowed Chair in Pediatric Surgery
Chief of Pediatric Surgery
University of Colorado
The Master award recognizes physicians that have made significant contributions to the science, practice, and/or advancement of obesity medicine.
Friends of Albert (Mickey) Stunkard
Lifetime Achievement Award
David B. Allison, PhD, FTOS
Dean
Distinguished Professor
Provost Professor, Indiana University Bloomington
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
Alice Ammerman, PhD, FTOS
Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor
Department of Nutrition
Director, Center of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Global Public Health
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
Patrick O’Neil, PhD, FTOS
Director, Weight Management Center
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina
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 Master’s Thesis Award
Megan Parker, MS
Uniformed Services University
of the Health Sciences
The award recognizes one student for their master’s thesis. The thesis is evaluated by the overall relevance and potential impact on the field of obesity with an emphasis on scientific methodology and approach.
The George A. Bray Doctoral Dissertation Award
Sally Eagleton, PhD
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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.
Leah Schumacher, PhD
The Miriam Hospital/
Brown Medical School
Clinical Research Awardee
Kripa Shankar, PhD
UTSouthwestern Medical Center
Basic Science Awardee
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.
TOS Clinician of the Year Award
Louis Aronne, MD, FTOS
Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research
Director, Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Clinical Research
Weill Cornell Medicine
The award was founded in 2015 by the Clinical Management of Obesity Section of The Obesity Society. The Clinician of the Year 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 Oded Bar-Or Award
Aaron Kelly, PhD, FTOS
Professor of Pediatrics
Co-Director, Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine
University Minnesota
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 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 E. Corkey, PhD, FTOS
Professor Emeritus
Boston University
Dr. Barbara Corkey is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry. Dr. Corkey’s work focuses on the metabolic regulation of signal transduction and energy metabolism in fat cells, β-cells, and human fibroblasts. She and her colleagues have been studying fuel-stimulated insulin secretion by the pancreatic β-cell; fuel partitioning in rat adipocytes; cytokine signaling; and Ca2+ transients in human fibroblasts from patients with inborn errors of fatty acid oxidation and Type 1 diabetes.
F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, MD, FTOS
Professor of Medicine
Co-Dir., NY Obesity Research Ctr.
Columbia University
He has served as president of the American Diabetes Association, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, as well as a Councillor of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.
His research focus is on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, obesity and diabetes. He is on the Steering Committees of the NIH-supported Diabetes Prevention Program, LookAhead trial, LifeMoms trial and Grade Trial.
Shiriki K. Kumanyika, PhD, FTOS
Research Professor, Drexel University
Emeritus Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Kumanyika’s research has focused on identifying effective strategies to reduce nutrition-related chronic disease risks, with a particular emphasis on achieving health equity for black Americans. Over more than three decades, she led or collaborated on single- or multi-center randomized clinical trials or observational studies related to obesity, sodium intake, and other aspects of diet and lifestyle.
Dr. Kumanyika was Vice-Chair of the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Healthy People 2020 objectives and was also involved in efforts to develop Healthy People 2030.