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SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS

Caroline Apovian, M.D.

Dr. Caroline Apovian is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at Boston Medical Center.
Dr. Apovian is an internationally recognized authority on nutrition with 25 years of experience in the field of obesity and nutrition. Her current research interests are in weight loss and its effects on endothelial cell function, adipose cell metabolism and inflammation, research in the bariatric surgery population, and novel pharmacotherapeutic anti-obesity agents. She is an expert in the technique for subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies. Dr. Apovian has been a member of The Obesity Society for more than 20 years and serves as Associate Editor for the Society's journal, Obesity. Dr. Apovian received her M.D. from Rutgers - New Jersey Medical School. She completed her residency and a Fellowship in Nutrition Support at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Louis J. Aronne, M.D., FACP

Louis J. Aronne, M.D., FACP is a leading authority on obesity and its treatment.

He is the Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research at Weill-Cornell Medical College where he directs the Comprehensive Weight Control Center. He has an adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine appointment at Columbia University. Dr. Aronne is Founder and CEO of BMIQ, a cloud-based weight management system that is delivered by health care providers to their patients during office visits. Dr. Aronne graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College with a BS in biochemistry and from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, followed by a Kaiser Foundation Fellowship at Weill-Cornell. He is a member of the AOA Medical Honor Society. Dr. Aronne is former president of the Obesity Society and Vice Chairman of the American Board of Obesity Medicine., He has performed more than 50 clinical trials of novel obesity treatments, authored more than 60 papers and book chapters on obesity and edited the NIH Guide to the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity. He served as a consultant in the development of the Veterans Administration MOVE program, the nation’s largest medically based weight control program. Dr. Aronne has won several awards for medical teaching. Since 2001 he has been ranked annually in Castle-Connelly’s Top Doctors in NY directory as a specialist in obesity and internal medicine. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.

Arne Astrup, M.D.

Head of Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at University of Copenhagen; Former President of the International Association for the Study of Obesity.
Dr. Astrup is a global leader in nutrition and obesity research. His research group undertakes basic, physiological, and clinical research in appetite and energy metabolism, with an aim to improving the prevention and treatment of obesity and related diseases. Dr. Astrup is an author on over 150 papers and is the 5th most cited author for obesity publications. Dr. Astrup was created Knight of the Order of Dannebrog in 1999, and Knight of the First Order of Dannebrog in November 2012, for his services to science. He is currently Associate Editor of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and member of the Editorial Board of Annual Reviews of Nutrition. He was founding Editor-in-Chief of Obesity Reviews from 1999 through 2010. He was President of The International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) 2006–2009 and Chairman 2009–2010. Dr. Astrup received his M.D. and DMSc (Ph.D.) from University of Copenhagen.

Ken Fujioka, M.D.

Director of the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center and the Center for Weight Management in La Jolla California at the Scripps Clinic.
His time is divided equally between clinical research and clinical practice. Research includes diets, medications, bariatric surgery, medical devices, web based weight loss programs, and outcomes in obesity treatment. The Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center has completed over 100 clinical trials in obesity related areas. The Center for Weight Management is a referral based multispecialty center that includes endocrinologists, surgeons, psychologist, dietitians, exercise physiologist, and nurse practitioners. The multispecialty clinic sees over a 1000 patients a month. It is a recognized Center of Excellence and attempts to treat all forms of obesity, morbid obesity, and eating disorders. Dr. Fujioka has also worked for the Medical board for the state of California as an expert witness. In 1997 he was asked to define the standard of care in the treatment of obesity. He has published original research, as well as chapters of books and reviews. He has worked with multiple government agencies and pharmaceutical companies on drug development and use in clinical practice.

Allan Geliebter, Ph.D.

Senior Attending Psychologist, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital; Pioneer in the gastric balloon field.
Dr. Geliebter is Professor of Psychology at Touro College, Member of the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, as well as Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Dr. Geliebter’s research interests include biological and psychological aspects of Binge Eating Disorder and the Night Eating Syndrome in overweight and obese individuals, brain imaging and binge eating, brain imaging pre and post obesity surgery, brain imaging and stress induced eating, genetics of obesity and neuroimaging, and environmental approaches for obesity intervention, including price discounts on healthy foods. He has a number of NIH grants to explore these topics. Dr. Geliebter received his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Hassan Heshmati, M.D. - Consultant, Endocrinology and Metabolism

Dr. Hassan M. Heshmati, has over 37 years of experience in clinical research in pharmaceutical companies (Essentialis, Carlsbad, CA and Sanofi-Aventis, Malvern, PA) and in academia (Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN and university-affiliated hospitals, Paris, France).

His research activity has been related to pituitary tumor, gonadal function, dyslipidemia, hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancer, osteoporosis, obesity, and diabetes. Dr. Heshmati received his M.D. Degree from the University of Paris VI, Paris, France. He is Board Certified in Endocrinology.

James Hill, Ph.D.

Professor of Medicine & Pediatrics, University of Colorado; Past President of The Obesity Society (TOS); Director of the Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center.
Dr. Hill is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Executive Director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, and Director of the Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center. He served as Chair of the first World Health Organization Consultation on Obesity in 1997. He is the recipient of the 2007 TOPS award from The Obesity Society and the Centrum Center and McCollum awards from the American Society for Nutrition. Dr. Hill is a cofounder of the National Weight Control Registry, a registry of individuals who have been successful in maintenance of a reduced body weight. He also is co-founder of America on the Move, a national weight gain prevention initiative that aims to inspire Americans to make small changes in how much they eat and how much they move to prevent weight gain. Dr. Hill is author on over 350 scientific articles and book chapters in the area of obesity. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Tennessee and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New Hampshire in Physiological Psychology.

Lee M. Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Lee Kaplan is the Director of the Obesity, Metabolism & Nutrition Institute, founding director of the Weight Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Kaplan’s clinical expertise is in the areas of obesity medicine, gastroenterology, and liver disease. He has a special interest in the causes and complications of obesity and the development of new and more effective preventive strategies and therapies for this problem. Dr. Kaplan serves as Chair of the Nutrition and Obesity Section of the AGA, Chair-elect of the Bariatric Surgery section of The Obesity Society, director of the Blackburn Obesity Course at Harvard Medical School, and Co-Chair of the Dartmouth Device Development Conference in Obesity and Metabolism. He is a member of the NIH Clinical Obesity Research Panel, was Chair of the recent FDA workshop on Device Development for Obesity and Metabolic Diseases, and is a member of the Obesity Medicine Certification Steering Committee. Dr. Kaplan graduated from Harvard University and received his M.D. and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and a fellowship in genetics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Bennett Shapiro, M.D.

Co-founder and Non-Executive Director of PureTech Health. Previously was EVP, Worldwide Licensing, Basic, and External Research for Merck. While at Merck, Dr. Shapiro led the research programs that resulted in FDA registration of approximately 20 drugs and vaccines.
As Executive Vice President at Merck, he was responsible for worldwide basic and preclinical research activities. From 1999-2003 Shapiro oversaw all in-licensing activities for Merck. Previously, he was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington. He is the author of over 120 papers on the molecular regulation of cellular behavior and the biochemical events that integrate the cascade of cellular activations at fertilization. He has served on many institutional advisory boards and scientific review panels, and is currently a member of the board of several life science companies, including VBL, Celera, Momenta, Elixir, and Ikaria. He also sits on the boards of the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative and the Mind and Life Institute. Dr. Shapiro received his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College.

Angelo Tremblay, Ph.D.

Obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology in Laval University, Quebec City, and is currently a professor in the Department of Kinesiology in this university.
His investigations are mostly oriented towards the study of factors influencing energy balance in humans with the intent to improve obesity management. Recently, his research has been focused on the study of non-traditional determinants of obesity such as short sleep duration, low calcium/dairy intake, insufficient vitamin intake, suboptimal feeding behaviors, demanding cognitive effort and persistent organic pollutants. He has published over 600 scientific papers and was the recipient of awards, including the Distinguished Lecturer Award offered by the Canadian Obesity Network in 2011. He is holder of the Canada Research Chair in Environment and Energy Balance.

Meet our Board of Directors

BOARD OF DIRECTORS