Awards and Kudos
ASCN Awardees Named
The ASCN Awards Committee announced awards for the 2005 Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego. John Wahren, MD, at Creative Peptides Sweden, Inc., will receive the E.V. McCollum Award, which is supported by Wyeth Nutrition. Michael Jensen, MD, at the Mayo Clinic will receive the Robert H. Herman Memorial Award in Clinical Nutrition. Rebecca Stoltzfus, PhD, at Cornell University will receive the Norman Kretchmer Memorial Award. Lisa Hark, PhD at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will receive the Roland L. Weinsier Award for Excellence in Medical/Dental Nutrition Education; that award is supported by the Dannon Institute. Sally Squires of the Washington Post is the first recipient of the ASNS/ASCN Nutrition Sciences Journalism Award. Congratulations to the awardees!! For more information, go to http://www.ascn.org/awards.htm.
Alfred Sommer Awarded Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research
Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has recently been awarded the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research. Dr Sommer's groundbreaking discoveries led to the widespread use of inexpensive vitamin A supplements that reduced childhood mortality by 34% in the developing world, saving millions of children's lives. The World Bank lists vitamin A supplementation among the most cost-effective health intervention in all of medicine.
While working in Indonesia during the 1970s, Dr Sommer discovered that mild vitamin A deficiency, which causes the progressive eye disorders xerophthalmia and keratomalacia, also dramatically increased childhood morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, particularly measles and diarrhea. He also discovered that vitamin A supplementation in children in the developing world reduced measles fatalities by 50% and overall childhood mortality by one-third. Despite widespread criticism of his discoveries from the scientific community, Dr Sommer continued to research his theories and later documented that a large oral dose of vitamin A, costing a few pennies, was a more effective and affordable means of treating vitamin A deficiency than injections. Today the oral dose is the recommended standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the control of vitamin A deficiency is included in the United Nations' Declaration of the Rights of Children.
The Pollin Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in pediatric research and is the only international award honoring advances in children's healthcare.
In Memoriam
Ancel Keys
Ancel Keys, a University of Minnesota public health scientist who invented the K rations consumed by millions of soldiers in World War II, discovered that saturated fat was a major cause of heart disease and championed the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, died November 20 at his home in Minneapolis. He was 100. He was still at work earlier this year, analyzing data from his landmark epidemiological study, begun in 1958, of 12,000 middle-aged men living in Italy, the Greek islands, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Finland, Japan, and the United States. That "Seven Countries Study" provided evidence that a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, pasta, bread, and olive oil and sparing of meat, eggs, butter, and dairy products reduces the occurrence of heart disease. According to an article in The Washington Post, Keys was asked at his 100th birthday party whether his diet had contributed to his long life. Ever the rigorous scientist, he answered, "Very likely, but no proof."
Sheldon Margen
Sheldon Margen, MD, longtime faculty member and Chairman of the Nutrition Sciences Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and later member of the faculty of the School of Public Health there, died in December 2004. Dr Margen was well known for his work on protein and mineral requirements, and later for cofounding the Berkeley Wellness Letter.
New Leaders for National Children's Study Advisory Committee
The National Children's Study is a study designed to examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The goal of the study is to improve the health and well-being of children. The National Children's Study Federal Advisory Committee (NCSAC) has recently elected Dr Alan Fleishman as acting chair of the NCSAC and Dr Marion Balsam as executive secretary. Dr Fleischman is a pediatrician, neonatologist, and bioethicist, and is presently working in the National Children's Study Program Office as well as at the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr Balsam is a pediatrician and retired Rear Admiral in the US Navy Medical Corps.
Calendar
Eighth International Conference on Nutrition and Cancer.
March 10-12, 2005
Honolulu, Hawaii. For more information, call 303-315-1593 or e-mail at amy. [email protected].
SCAN 21st Annual Symposium. Involve, Evolve, Resolve: Advances in Wellness and Weight Management.
March 10-13, 2005
Charleston, SC. For more information, go to: http://www.scandpg.org/page.asp?id=meetingsand_events.
Cancer and Obesity-Critical Dietary Compositional Data Needed to Monitor Disease Risk. 29th US National Nutrient Databank Conference. (satellite to Experimental Biology 2005)
April 1, 2005
San Diego, Calif. For more information, go to: http://menu.pbrc.edu/conferences.
Experimental Biology 2005.
April 2-6, 2005
San Diego, Calif. For more information, go to: http://www.faseb.org/meetings/future/index.html.
2005 Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM) Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions. Behavioral Medicine and Public Health: Promoting the Health of Individuals, Families, Communities, and Populations.
April 13-16, 2005
Boston, Mass. For more information, go to: http://www.sbm.org.
International Conference on HIV/AIDS, Food Nutrition Security.
April 14-16, 2005
Organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Durban, South Africa.
For more information, contact Stuart Gillespie; e-mail: s.gillespie@ giar.org.
40th Annual Public Health Professional Conference and the International Public Health Summit.
June 5-11, 2005
Philadelphia, Pa. For more information, go to: http://www.coausphsconference.org.
Visualizing Food and Farm. Joint 2005 Annual Meetings of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (AFHVS) and the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS).
June 9-12, 2005
Portland, Ore. For more information, go to: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhaynes/afhvs or http://ww.nyu.edu/education/nutriton/NFSR/ASFS.htm.
1st European Symposium on Lipid Bioscience.
June 12-14, 2005
Montpellier, France. For more information, go to: http://www.eurofedlipid.org/meetings/montpellier/index.htm.
4th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
June 16-18, 2005
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
For more information, contact Dawn Hathaway; 206-667-7177; e-mail: [email protected]; http://www.isbnpa.org.
International Society of Sports Nutrition.
June 16-18, 2005
New Orleans, La. For more information contact Jose Antonio; 561-239-1754; [email protected]; http://www.sportsnutritionsociety.org.
American Institute for Cancer Research and World, Cancer Research Fund International Research Conference on Food, Nutrition and Cancer.
July 14-15, 2005
Washington, DC.
For more information, go to: http://www.aicr.org/conference.
18th International Nutrition Congress.
September 19-23, 2005
Durban, South Africa.
For more information, call: +27-12-346-3866.
Books and Media Received
Omega-6/Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid Ration: The Scientific Evidence, A.P. Simopolous and L.G. Cleland, Editors. Karger; 2004, $198.25, ISBN: 3-8055-7640-4
Nutrition in the Philippines: The Past for Its Template, Red for Its Color, Cecilia A. Florencio. University of the Philippines Press; 2004, ISBN: 971-542-422-8