Thomas A. Wadden Award for Distinguished Mentorship
Christina Roberto, PhD
Presidential Associate Professor of Health Policy
Director, PEACH lab
Associate Director, CHIBE
University of Pennsylvania
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
Ismaa Sadaf Farooqi, PhD
Professor of Metabolism and Medicine
University of Cambridge
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
Mary Ellen Vajravelu, MD
Assistant Professor
University of Pittsburgh
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
Thomas A. Wadden, PhD, FTOS
Professor
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
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
Griffin P. Rodgers, MD, MACP
Director
NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
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
Nikhil Dhurandhar, PhD, FTOS
Professor and Chair, Helen Devitt Jones Endowed Chair
Texas Tech University
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
Armando Peña, PhD
Indiana 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.
Sophia Hua, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Harvard University
Matthew J. Landry, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Stanford 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
Myles S. Faith, PhD, FTOS
Professor
University of Buffalo
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.
Patricia Nece, JD
Chair
Obesity Action Coalition
Patricia Nece, J.D., advocates for the eradication of weight bias, science-based obesity treatments, and access to those treatments. She encourages change by sharing her personal experiences with life-long severe obesity. Patty is Chair of the Obesity Action Coalition, a 75,000-member non-profit organization dedicated to representing the interests of those affected by obesity. She is also a member of the National Academies of Sciences Roundtable on Obesity Solutions, the World Obesity Federation’s Policy and Prevention Committee, the Global Obesity Patient Alliance, and the Lancet Commission on Obesity.
Eric Ravussin, PhD, FTOS
Associate Executive Director – Clinical Science
Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Dr. Eric Ravussin is a Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University. He received his PhD in human physiology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland in 1980. Dr. Ravussin is an internationally recognized translational investigator in obesity and diabetes research. His research now focuses on the molecular basis of obesity and its co-morbidities. His latest research is in the field of aging with an emphasis on the impact of caloric restriction
on human biomarkers of aging and longevity.