Movers and Shakers
Nutrition Today, EAB Member John Erdman to Receive WO Atwater Award
John Erdman, PhD, has been selected as the 2006 WO Atwater Lecturer by USDA's Agricultural Research Service. Dr Erdman's current research focuses on the impact of bioactive components in tomato products on prostate cancer risks. His previous research on soy protein consumption and human lipid metabolism has contributed to the more widespread acceptance and use of soy in American diets and to FDA approval that allows manufacturers to claim that 25 g of protein daily reduces the risk of heart disease. Erdman also has served as the chairman of 2 committees of the Institute of Medicine Food and Nutrition Board. And, he is a member of our Editorial Advisory Board! Erdman, who holds an Endowed Nutrition Research Chair, joined the University of Illinois faculty in 1975 and is a past president of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences and is a fellow of the American Heart Association and Institute of Food Technologists. He was named as a Lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. He earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1968, 1973, and 1975, respectively. ARS established the Atwater Lecture in 1968 to honor the memory of Wilbur Olin Atwater (1844-1907) and to recognize scientists who have made unique contributions toward improving the diet and nutrition of people around the world. Atwater, considered the father of modern nutrition research and education, was the US Department of Agriculture's first chief of nutrition investigations. His work set the tone for the nutrition research that ARS continues today. The Lecture is being co-sponsored this year by the American Society for Nutrition (formerly the American Society for Nutrition Sciences and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition) and it will be presented during Experimental Biology 2006 in San Francisco, April 4, 2006 at about 12:15 PM to be followed by a reception. Congratulations John!
Allison Yates to Lead Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center
Allison A. Yates, PhD, RD, is the new Director of the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC)! Dr Yates received a BS in Dietetics and an MS in Public Health from UCLA, and she is a Registered Dietitian. She received her PhD in Nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley.
From 1994 to 2003, Dr Yates served as Director of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. While at the Food and Nutrition Board, Dr Yates led the expanded approach to establishing human requirements and recommendations for nutrients (RDAs) that now includes other reference values and is thus termed Dietary Reference Intakes. She also served as study director for a Congressionally mandated study on how to improve the food safety system in the United States, and at the request of the FDA, directed a study to design a framework for evaluating the safety of dietary supplements. Since 2004, she was the Director of Nutritional Sciences at ENVIRON Health Sciences Institute in Arlington, VA. Congratulations Allison!
Susan Scrimshaw to Lead Simmons College
Dr Susan C. Scrimshaw has recently been elected to be the next President of Simmons College. She is currently the Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and previously in administrative positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Columbia University. Dr Scrimshaw's interdisciplinary research has focused on gender, race, ethnicity, and culture, and their impact on public health.
She spent her formative years in Guatemala, where her father (renowned MIT professor, Dr Nevin Scrimshaw, now retired) established a nutrition institute (the INCAP, or Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama) for the Pan American Health Organization of the World Health Organization and took her with him and his wife Mary to work in rural villages. She graduated from Barnard College and received master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia's Department of Anthropology. The author of 5 books or monographs and 65 journal articles and book chapters, Dr Scrimshaw is also a member of Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Spiegel to Lead Einstein College of Medicine
Allen M. Spiegel, MD, an internationally recognized researcher and endocrinologist who serves as Director of the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive Diseases & Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been appointed Dean of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, effective June 1st. He will succeed Dr Dominick P. Purpura, an internationally renowned neuroscientist who has been Dean of Einstein since 1984-the longest tenure of any medical school dean in the United States. For nearly 30 years, Dr Spiegel has had a career at the NIH, where he has been Director of the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive Diseases & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) since 1999. He is an internationally renowned physician-scientist and endocrinologist with extensive experience in translational research programs. A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Spiegel earned his bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1967. He received his MD degree cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1971 and completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Deborah Kline Walker is New President of APHA
Deborah Kline Walker, EdD, has been elected the President of The American Public Health Association. Dr Walker served for many years as an Associate Commissioner for Programs and Prevention at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and as an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is currently a principal associate at Abt Associates and an adjunct professor at the Boston University School of Public Health.
In Memoriam
Helen D. Ullrich, former Executive Director of the Society for Nutrition Education and a founding member of the Society and a well known and beloved nutrition educator for many years in California and Pennsylvania died in mid March. Helen's remarkable life was featured in a 2005 article she authored in Nutrition Today, and her example will stay with all of those who love nutrition education and community nutrition.
CALENDAR
IANA 2006 Symposium on Nutrition and Alzheimer's Disease/Cognitive Decline
May 1-2, 2006
Chicago, IL
For more information: http://www.crha.rush.edu/IANA2006Symposium.
NIH State-of-the-Science Conference on Multivitamin/Mineral Supplements and Chronic Disease Prevention
May 15-17, 2006
Bethesda, MD
For more information: http://consensus.nih.gov.
Certificate of Training in Childhood and Adolescent Weight Management
May 18-20, 2006
Burlington, VT
For more information: http://www.cdrnet.org/wtmgmt/childhood.htm.
2006 Harvard/ Paul F. Glenn Symposium on Aging
June 5, 2006
Boston, MA
For more information: http://www.hms.harvard.edu/agingresearch.
Swedish Nutrition Foundation Novel Aspects of Fatty Acids 2006
June 14-16, 2006
Ystads Saltjobad, Sweden
For more information: http://www.nafa2006.com.
Gut Microbiology: Research to Improve Health, Immune Response, and Nutrition
June 21-23, 2006
Aberdeen, UK
For more information: http://www.rowett.ac.uk/RRI-INRA2006.
Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Expo
June 24-28, 2006
Orlando, FL
For more information: http://www.ift.org.
Society for Nutrition Education Annual Conference
July 15-20, 2006
San Francisco, CA
For more information: http://www.sne.org.
Biannual Meeting of the Comparative Nutrition Society
Books And Media Received
What to Eat, Marion Nestle, PhD. North Point Press, 2006. $30.00; ISBN: 0-86547-704-3.
Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods And How They Grew. Samuel Fromartz. Harcourt Books, 2006. $25.00; ISBN: 0-15-101130-3.
The QOD Diet: Set Free the Real You. John T. Daugirdas, MD. White Swan Press. 2006. $18.95; ISBN: 0-9774614-0-8.