Caroline Apovian, MD is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, in the Section of Diabetes, and Nutrition at Boston University School of Medicine. She is also Director of the Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Apovian is a nationally and internationally recognized authority on nutrition and has been in the field of obesity and nutrition since 1990. 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 antiobesity agents. She is also an expert in the technique for subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies, and has been performing these biopsies on research subjects for over 10 years. She was on the expert panel for updating the 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. Dr. Apovian was a recipient of the Physician Nutrition Specialist Award given by the American Society of Clinical Nutrition. This was for her work on developing and providing nutrition education, to medical students and physicians in training at Boston University School of Medicine. She has published over 200 articles, chapters, and reviews on the topics of: obesity, nutrition, and the relationship between adipose tissue and risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Dr. Apovian has recently published a new book entitled the “The Age-Defying Diet” and has also written the popular books for “The Overnight Diet” and “The ALLI Diet Plan.” Dr. Apovian has given over 100 invited lectures nationally and internationally and was recently appointed Vice President of The Obesity Society for 2015-16.

Dr. Apovian has done consulting for Amylin, Merck, Johnson and Johnson, Arena, Nutrisystem, Zafgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Orexigen, EnteroMedics, Scientific Intake, Gelesis, Takeda and Novo Nordisk. Dr. Apovian has received research funding from Lilly, Amylin, Aspire Bariatrics, GI Dynamics, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Orexigen, MetaProteomics, the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation and MYOS Corporation. Dr. Apovian owns stock in Science Smart LLC.

George A. Bray, MD is a Boyd Professor Emeritus at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans. After graduating from Brown University summa cum laude in 1953, Bray entered Harvard Medical School graduating magna cum laude in 1957. His post-doctoral training included an internship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, a fellowship at the NIH, residency at the Strong-Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, a fellowship at the National Institute for Medical Research in London and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. In 1970, he became Director of the Clinical Research Center at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center and organizer of the First Fogarty International Center Conference on Obesity at NIH in 1973. Bray also Chaired the Second International Congress on Obesity in Washington DC in 1977. In 1989 he became the first Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, a post he held until 1999. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians, Master of the American College of Endocrinology and Master of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. Bray founded the North American Association for the Study of Obesity in 1982 (now The Obesity Society), and he was the founding editor of its journal, Obesity Research, as well as co-founder of the International Journal of Obesity and the first editor of Endocrine Practice. Dr. Bray has received many awards during his medical career including election to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, an Honorary Fellowship in the American Dietetic Association. During his academic years Bray authored or coauthored more than 2,000 publications, ranging from peer-reviewed articles and reviews, to books, book chapters and abstracts. Bray has had a long interest in the history of medicine and has written articles and a book on this subject.

F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, MD is Professor of Medicine and co-Director of the Obesity Research Center at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Dr. Pi-Sunyer is also a Senior Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He was also Professor of Applied Physiology at Columbia Teachers’ College from 1985 to 2005.

After receiving a BA in 1955 from Oberlin College, Dr. Pi-Sunyer completed an MD from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1959 and an MPH from Harvard University School of Public Health in 1963.

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 Councilor of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. He has been a Fellow of the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Task Forces on Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences, on Medical Nutrition Therapy and on Dietary Reference Intakes on Macronutrients. He served on the 2005 and 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and also completed a term on the FDA Science Board Advisory Committee to the Commissioner. He chaired the committee of the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that researched and defined the federal government’s new guidelines for the prevention and treatment of obesity and also served on the ACC/AHA/TOS Task Force that revised the Guidelines.

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.