Confirmed Speakers

McMaster University

Dr. Sonia Anand is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at McMaster University, the Director of McMaster Population Genomics Program and a vascular medicine specialist. She recently received the Canada Research Chair in Ethnic Diversity and Cardiovascular Disease. She also holds the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario/Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Population Health Research. Her present research focuses upon the environmental and genetic determinants of vascular disease in populations of varying ancestral origin, women and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Anand received a Doctor of Medicine from McMaster in 1992, Internal Medicine Training at McMaster and a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1996. She further received her Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster in 1996 and Ph.D. in Health Research Methodology at McMaster in 2002. In 1996, Dr. Anand received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Clinician Scientist Award Phase 1 followed by the Phase 2 Award which she held from 2003-2008. Her current research includes initiating 2 large birth cohort studies funded by the CIHR and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada - one among South Asian women of the greater Toronto area and the second among Aboriginal women from the Six Nations Reserve. Her work is widely published amongst academic and peer-evaluated journals and she teaches clinical epidemiology courses in methodology and cardiovascular disease at McMaster University.

Université Laval

Dr. Benoit Arsenault obtained his doctoral degree in Physiology-Endocrinology from Université Laval in Québec City, Canada in 2009. After two postdoctoral fellowships performed at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam and at the Montreal Heart Institute, Dr. Arsenault became Assistant Professor at the Department of Medicine at Université Laval in 2013. Dr. Arsenault is also a research scientist in the cardiology axis at the Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec in Canada.

The research of Dr. Arsenault’s team is focused on high-density lipoprotein metabolism, lipoprotein(a), PCSK9, lipid-lowering therapy, pharmacogenomics, abdominal obesity, cardiorespiratory fitness, nutrition, atherosclerosis, aortic stenosis and other aspects of the lifestyle-related and inherited risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. 

University of New South Wales

Philip Barter has held positions in research institutes and universities in Australia and the US, including a 10-year term as Director of The Heart Research Institute in Sydney; he is currently based at the University of New South Wales where he holds a position as Conjoint Professor of Medicine. He is the current President of the International Atherosclerosis Society. He was the 2011 recipient of the Anitschkow Award of the European Atherosclerosis Society and the 2013 recipient of the Australian Heart Foundation Medal for Lifetime Contribution to Cardiovascular Research. His basic research interests are plasma lipids and lipoproteins, specifically high density lipoproteins. His clinical research involves participation in clinical trials of lipid-lowering agents. He has been a member of the executive of the steering committees of seven major international clinical outcome trials (two as Chairman) investigating the effects of lipid modifying agents on cardiovascular disease. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed research papers on plasma lipids and lipoproteins, their metabolism, regulation, function and relationship to atherosclerosis. He has also written handbooks on HDL and CETP inhibitors.

Concordia University

Louis Bherer is full professor of Psychology, Chair in Preventive Health Science Research and Scientific Director of the PERFORM Centre at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He is also a researcher and laboratory director at the research center of the Institute universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. Before joining Concordia University he held the CIHR Canadian Research Chair on Aging and the Prevention of Cognitive Decline at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). Bherer completed a Master’s degree in Cognitive Psychology (Université Laval 1996), a PhD in Neuropsychology (Université de Montréal, 2002) and a post-doc in Aging and Neurosciences at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA).  Bherer and his team want to improve understanding of why and how intellectual stimulation and physical activity can help seniors maintain better brain functioning. His work also studies whether these benefits are long lasting and are similar for seniors of all ages, sexes and health conditions. Bherer’s research program is currently supported by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

University of Toronto

Dr. Gillian Booth is a Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre, located at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Booth is also an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She has received numerous awards for her research and is currently supported by Mid-Career Investigator Awards from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Booth's research focuses on environmental, socioeconomic, and health care factors influencing the risk of diabetes and related chronic diseases, with a major interest in the role of the built environment in perpetuating obesity-related diseases. Dr. Booth has made major contributions to diabetes policy and practice at both the national and provincial levels. She has served on advisory committees for the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System and was the Methodology Chair for the 2008 and 2013 Canadian Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guidelines.

University of Washington

Edward J. Boyko, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Washington and Staff Physician at VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle.  He received his B.A. degree from Columbia University in 1975, and his M.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979. He completed an internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Chicago in 1982, and fellowship training in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program in Seattle in 1984. He is the former Director of the VA-funded Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (ERIC).  He has held several national positions including Associate Editor of the journals Diabetes Care and the American Journal of Epidemiology; Chair of the NIH Kidney, Nutrition, Obesity, and Diabetes (KNOD) study section; Chair of the ADA Epidemiology and Statistics Interest Group; Member of the ADA Scientific Sessions Planning Committee; Public Health and Epidemiology Deputy Stream Lead for the 2013 World Diabetes Congress held in Melbourne, Australia; and President of the International Diabetes Epidemiology Group.

Dr. Boyko’s research program focuses on the epidemiology of type 2 diabetes and its complications, associated metabolic disorders, and obesity. Dr. Boyko’s best-known research was conducted in the Japanese American Community Diabetes Study, a prospective study that followed Japanese-American residents of King County, Washington State for 10 years for the development of diabetes and related conditions. In 2013, he received the Kelly West Award from the American Diabetes Association in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of diabetes epidemiology. In addition to his research interests, he also provides care for a primary care patient panel at VA Puget Sound in Seattle. He has mentored over 50 trainees and junior faculty members over the course of his career. In 2004 he received the University of Washington Medicine Award for Outstanding Mentorship.

Université de Sherbrooke

Dr. Carpentier is the recipient of the CIHR-GSK Research Chair in Diabetes and professor and clinician scientist in the Departments of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke. He is also the director of the Université de Sherbrooke Centre of Excellence in Diabetes, Obesity and Cardiovascular Complications and the director of the Province of Quebec Research Network on Cardiometabolic Health, Diabetes and Obesity.

Dr. Carpentier’s research interests include: 1) the investigation of postprandial fatty acid metabolism in the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; 2) the investigation of brown adipose tissue metabolism in diabetes; and 3) the anti-diabetic mechanisms of bariatric surgery. His research funding includes grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA), and the Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ).

Dr. Carpentier has been a member of numerous scientific panels for granting agencies including the CDA, CIHR, FRSQ and HSFC. Dr. Carpentier has published more than 200 peer-reviewed abstracts and communications and more than 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He is the recipient for multiple awards, including the 2011 Diabetes Young Investigator Award of the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism and the CDA/CIHR Young Investigator Award in 2012.

Université de Montréal and Université Laval

Dr. Gilles R. Dagenais is Professor Emeritus at the Université de Montréal and at the Université Laval, and continues his career in clinical research at the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec. His main research interest focuses on ischemic cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and their prevention. He was co-Principal Investigator of the Quebec Cardiovascular Study and is an investigator, member of the Steering committee and Chair of the adjudication committee of the large international epidemiological project,  PURE Study, and  of international, randomized clinical trials in primary and secondary prevention on ischemic cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia.

Dr. Dagenais was very active in the cardiovascular communities as President of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, President of the 4th International Conference on Preventive Cardiology, Vice-President of the Inter-American Society of Cardiology, Assistant Editor of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, Director of the Institut de Cardiologie de Québec and the Université Laval Cardiology Program. He has served as co-Chair of the Quebec Forum on cardiovascular health, Quebec Heart and Stroke. He has been Chair of the Department of Medicine at the Université de Montréal and President of the Canadian Chairs and Professors of Department of Medicine.  

Université Laval

Dr. Després is Professor at the Department of Kinesiology at Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Dr. Després received his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from Université Laval in 1984. He then pursued a postdoctoral training at the Department of Medicine of the University of Toronto from 1984 to 1986. He established himself as a research scholar at Université Laval in 1986. In 1999, he was appointed as Director of Research in Cardiology at the Québec Heart and Lung Institute in Québec City. Since 2005, Dr. Després holds the position of Scientific Director of the International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk at Université Laval. Université Laval recently named him Director of Science and Innnovation of the Alliance santé Québec, which objective is to federate the entire Québec City region around all aspects related to health.  He has also been the Editor for the International Journal of Obesity from 1992 to 2000, and he is currently a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals. Dr. Després has published 643 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 58 book chapters. His work has been cited more than 28,000 times. Dr. Després’ expertise covers the assessment and management of obesity and body fat distribution, lipid metabolism, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, exercise, nutrition and the prevention and the treatment of CHD risk factors.

He has received numerous prestigious awards from the American College of Sports Medicine, the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, the Canadian Lipoprotein Conference and the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. Last year, he received the Adrien-Pouliot Award from the French Canadian Association for the Advancement of Sciences (ACFAS), he was named Personality of the year in Québec City by Radio-Canada (CBC)/Le Soleil and has received the “Gloire de l’Escolle” medal (the most prestigious distinction given by Université Laval to its faculty members). Dr. Després is a fellow of the American Heart Association and is currently President-elect of the Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health of the American Heart Association (formerly NPAM). In 2012, Dr. Després gave the American College of Sports Medicine’s prestigious D. Bruce Dill Historical Lecture. In 2014, he was named “Grand Québécois” by the Québec Chamber of Commerce.

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Dr. Caroline Fox is a Tenured Scientist in the Laboratory for Metabolic and Population Health at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. She received her MD from the University of Pennsylvania, and her MPH from the University of Michigan. She completed her medical internship, residency, and endocrinology fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. Her research focuses on the epidemiology and genetics of obesity, body fat distribution, and chronic kidney disease. Dr. Fox is the author of more than 300 original research papers, and serves as the Vice Chair of the Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council of the American Heart Association.  She is also an Associate Professor (part-time) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Université de Montréal

Lise Gauvin is a Full Professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine of the School of Public Health at the Université de Montréal and a Researcher and Associate Scientific Director for Population Health Research at the CHUM (Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal) Research Centre. She is also actively involved in the activities of the Lea-Roback Research Center on Social Inequalities in Health in Montreal. She completed her doctoral work in physical activity sciences in 1985 at the Université de Montréal and has held positions at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and Concordia University in Montreal, Québec in addition to her current academic position. She is currently a member of the Institute Advisory Board of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’ Institute for Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes. Her research focuses on socio-environmental and individual determinants of involvement physical activity and the reach, acceptability, and impact of interventions to promote physical and prevent eating disorders. She uses innovative data collection and analysis techniques including real-time data capture, multilevel modeling, and natural experiments to gain new insights into intervention. In addition to publishing her work in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, Dr Gauvin is actively engaged in knowledge transfer and exchange activities developed in partnership with researchers and interventionists at the Montreal Public Health Department and the Institut national de santé publique du Québec. 

Harvard University

Dr. Frank Hu is Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  Dr. Hu is Co-director of the Program in Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention at Harvard. He also serves as Director of Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (BNORC) Epidemiology and Genetics Core. Dr. Hu received his MD from Tongji Medical College in China and a PhD in Epidemiology from University of Illinois at Chicago.  Dr. Hu’s research is mainly focused on nutritional and lifestyle epidemiology and prevention of type 2 diabetes and CVD as well as gene-environment interactions in the US and China.

Dr. Hu has published more than 800 original papers and reviews and a textbook on Obesity Epidemiology (Oxford University Press 2008).  Dr. Hu is the recipient of the Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology by American Diabetes Association in 2010.  He has served on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease and on the NIH Obesity Guideline Expert Panel. Currently, he is a member of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, USDA/HHS.

University of British Columbia

Dr. Karin Humphries is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and holds the UBC-Heart and Stroke Foundation Professorship in Women’s Cardiovascular Health. She has a doctoral degree in epidemiology and a background in biochemistry, kinesiology, and experimental pathology. Her primary research focus is on sex and gender differences in the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes in subjects with coronary artery disease. Dr. Humphries is currently investigating the treatment and outcomes of patients with chest pain, but angiographically normal coronaries.

 

Dr. Humphries is also the inaugural Scientific Director of the BC Centre for Improved Cardiovascular Health (ICVHealth). In this role, she is committed to improving health outcomes for British Columbians at risk for, or living with, cardiovascular disease by generating and applying new evidence to improve the delivery of cardiovascular care in the province. Together, Dr. Humphries and ICVHealth have undertaken multiple projects that demonstrate potential for broad impact by improving patient outcomes and enhancing resource utilization.

Mayo Clinic

Michael D. Jensen, M.D. holds the Tomas J. Watson, Jr. Professorship in Honor of Dr. Robert L. Frye at the Mayo College of Medicine, Rochester, MN. He is the Director of the Department of Medicine Obesity Treatment Research Program at Mayo Clinic. His clinical interests are primarily focused on obesity and diabetes. Dr. Jensen's research involves the study of obesity, body fat distribution, and fatty acid/energy metabolism, focusing specifically on the effects obesity and body-fat distribution on health and on the determinants of body fat distribution. His studies have identified the relative contributions of different fat depots to lipid fuel metabolism, including the role of intra-abdominal fat. He received a MERIT award from NIH to continue his studies in this area and has been funded for 26 consecutive years. He has served on NIH, Mayo and foundation scientific review panels and has contributed to professional associations both by committee work and in elected office. Dr. Jensen has published more than 220 original research articles, together with over 50 invited papers and book chapters. He served as co-chair of the NHLBI Expert Panel on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults.

Duke University Medical Centre

Dr. Bill Kraus, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Duke.  He is a clinician scientist with research interests in the use of exercise for favorable mediation of cardiometabolic risk; in the role of skeletal muscle adaptations in mediating that risk; and in the study of how we can use a better understanding of gene-environment interactions to focus preventive measures in cardiovascular medicine.  Dr. Kraus' clinical focus is in the areas of cardiovascular prevention with a focus on lifestyle modification, and in cardiac rehabilitation.  He was the Medical Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation at Duke 1994-2004 and served as the Director of Duke's Center for Living, an outpatient lifestyle prevention center, from 1996 to 1999.  He currently runs a cardiovascular prevention clinic that is focused on combining lifestyle and medical interventions to address issues associated with cardiometabolic risk and a sports cardiology clinic that focuses on older athletes.  He is the author of over 200 peer reviewed publications and 130 abstracts. 

Université Laval

Benoît Lamarche, Ph.D. is Full Professor at the Department of Foods Sciences and Nutrition and Director of the Chair of Nutrition at Laval University. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers in areas related to nutrition and its impact on metabolic syndrome, obesity, inflammation and dyslipidemia. His research on the association between small dense LDL particles and the risk of CHD, on the effect of trans fat from industrial and ruminant sources on blood lipids and on Mediterranean diet is highly cited. He has received numerous awards, including awards from the Société Québécoise de lipidologie, nutrition et métabolisme (Prix des Fondateurs, 2013), the Canadian Nutrition Society (Centrum New Investigator Award, 2011), the Utrech Group and the International Dairy Federation (Wiebe Visser Bi-annual International Nutrition Award, 2004).

Université Laval

Doctor Eric Larose is Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. He is a staff Interventional Cardiologist and Co-Director of the Joint Cardiology and Radiology Advanced Imaging Sector (Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance & Computed Tomography) at the Institut Universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec (IUCPQ). Director of the cardiovascular imaging core laboratories (LICA) of the IUCPQ Research Center, Doctor Larose is a leading-edge researcher in atherosclerosis imaging.

Following doctorates in Veterinary Medicine (1993) and Medicine (1997) at University of Montreal, he pursued postdoctoral training in Internal Medicine (2001) and Cardiology (2003) at the Montreal Heart Institute. From 2003 to 2005, while a scholar of the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQ-S), Dr. Larose accomplished a post-doctoral fellowship combining cardiovascular research and clinical cardiology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Without interruption since 2005, Dr. Larose holds several research grants from local and national organizations including the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in addition to deserving the support of FRQ-S as clinical-research scholar - Junior I and II (2009-2017). He is also the recipient of several awards including the Quebec Heart Award for his work on the hidden risks of atherosclerosis (2008) awarded by the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Quebec and the Award of Excellence in Preventive Cardiology (2008 and 2010) presented by the HSFC.

His research focuses on the biological determinants of the stability of atherosclerosis and the heterogeneity of clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis in the various vascular beds. To accomplish this, Dr. Larose has developed an impressive atherosclerosis-imaging platform chiefly built on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), and established the Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging Central Laboratory (LICA), which serves local, national and international multicenter studies. This infrastructure was developed in part with the support of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

As evidenced by his work with several committees and organizations in the local, national and international scientific community, Dr. Larose has developed an expertise that is widely recognized by his peers. Specifically, he aims to serve as an expert and advisor on panels and committees that directly influence clinical practice guidelines and health policy. To date, Dr. Larose has published over 120 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and nine book chapters.

Ochsner Clinical School

Dr. Lavie graduated from Louisiana State University Medical School in 1983 and completed internal medicine residency at Ochsner  and fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at Mayo, where he joined the faculty in 1989. Dr. Lavie is Professor of Medicine and Medical Director, Cardiac Rehabilitation and Preventive Cardiology Director, Exercise Testing Laboratory; and Staff Cardiologist, Echocardiographic Laboratory at the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, Ochsner Clinical School-The University of Queensland School of Medicine and he  previously served for 10 years as Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Training program. He  served as a Consultant in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana from January 2012-October 2014. Dr. Lavie’s research interests include cardiac rehabilitation and prevention, lipids, hypertension, obesity, and exercise, as well as noninvasive testing, encompassing echocardiography, exercise testing, and nuclear cardiology.  He is the author of over 800 medical publications including two cardiology textbooks, and  40 book chapters.  Dr. Lavie serves as a frequent lecturer, reviewer for several medical journals, and is Associate Editor and Cardiovascular Section Editor of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings and is Editor in Chief of Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Prevention, and over 20 other Journals. For 2011 till now, he has served as Chairman of the Document Oversights Committee for AACVPR. For the years 2003 and 2004 he served as Chairman of Vascular, Hypertension and Prevention for the American College of Cardiology and he has been an elite reviewer for JACC for 7 of the last 8 years, also receiving the Simon Dack Award as a life-time, hall of fame, reviewer. In 2013, he gave Key-Note lectures for both the American College of Sports Medicine and the Cardiac Rehabilitation one for the AACVPR, where he received the 2013 Research Award. From a personal stand-point, he is an avid sports fan and competitive runner, with personal records in the 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon and Marathon of 18:30,38:30,1:24:30, and 3:10, respectively. He is the author of “The Obesity Paradox”, released April,2014.

Simon Fraser University

Dr. Scott Lear is a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and the inaugural Pfizer/Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Cardiovascular Prevention Research at St. Paul's Hospital. Dr. Lear’s research spans the breadth of prevention of chronic diseases at a population level to the management of chronic diseases at an individual level. Dr. Lear leads the Multi-cultural Community Health Assessment Trial (M-CHAT) which is an ongoing investigation to identify the role of ethnic background in risk for obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Results to date indicate that men and women of Chinese and South Asian origin have greater amounts of inner-abdominal fat than Europeans, even at the same body fat. This results in increased risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in these groups. Future research will explore the genetic and socio-cultural determinants of cardiovascular disease risk in these populations. Another area of Dr. Lear’s research consists of the identification of environmental characteristics that may act as facilitators and barriers of healthy lifestyle habits that can then determine downstream cardiovascular disease risk (the so-called ‘built environment). Working with other investigators of the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiologic (PURE) study, Dr. Lear will look at how one’s community can influence disease risk.

St. Michael's Hospital

Dr. Lawrence A. Leiter is Director of the Lipid Clinic; Associate Director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre; and Associate Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto where he was also the Head of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism from 2000-2010. He is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Leiter has several research interests including clinical trials on the prevention of atherosclerosis, especially in diabetes, and the dietary and pharmacologic treatment of diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and obesity. He has over 490 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He was an investigator in many of the landmark diabetes trials including the DCCT, ACCORD, and ADVANCE and is on the Steering Committees of many ongoing outcome trials in both the diabetes and lipid areas.

Dr. Leiter is the Past-President of the Canadian Society of Endocrinology & Metabolism (CSEM) and is a past Chair of the Clinical and Scientific Section of the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA). He has been involved in many national and international committees and consensus conferences including those of the International Diabetes Federation, CDA, Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP), Canadian Cardiovascular Society (Dyslipidemia), and Obesity Canada.

For his work, he has received a number of awards including the CDA Frederick G. Banting Award and the American Diabetes Association Charles H Best Award (awarded to DCCT investigators), both for Distinguished Service, the 2005 CSEM Educator of the Year Award, and the 2006 CDA Gerald S. Wong Award in recognition of significant contributions to the diabetes community. He was also the inaugural winner of the St. Michael’s Hospital Complete Physician Award.

 

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Peter Libby, MD, is a cardiovascular specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and holds the Mallinckrodt Professorship of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He served as Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at BWH from 1998 - 2014. His areas of clinical expertise include general and preventive cardiology. His current major research focus is the role of inflammation in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Dr. Libby has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research accomplishments, including the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology (2011), the Basic Research Prize of the American Heart Association (2011), the Anitschkow Prize in Atherosclerosis Research of the European Atherosclerosis Society (2013), and the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (2014).

Dr. Libby’s professional memberships include the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and elected honorary memberships in the British Atherosclerosis Society, the Japan Circulation Society, and the Japanese College of Cardiology. He has served as the President of the Association of University Cardiologists. He also has served in many roles as a volunteer for the American Heart Association, including chairman of several research committees and member of the executive committees of the Councils on Arteriosclerosis, Circulation, and Basic Science. He presided the American College of Cardiology’s Research Allocations Peer Review Committee for two terms. He has frequently consulted for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, including a 5-year term on the Board of Scientific Councilors. He directed the DW Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center and two cycles of Leducq Foundation Awards, and has received continuous funding from the NHLBI for several decades.

An author and lecturer on cardiovascular medicine and atherosclerosis, Dr. Libby has published extensively in medical journals including Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature. He is an Editor of Braunwald’s Heart Disease. Dr. Libby also contributed chapters on the pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention of atherosclerosis to many editions of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. He has held numerous visiting professorships and delivered more than 80 major named or keynote lectures throughout the world.

Dr. Libby earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, and completed his training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital). He also holds an honorary MA degree from Harvard University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Lille, France.

Seoul National University College of Medicine

Professor Lim graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship at the Seoul National University Hospital. He also completed his fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA from 2011-2012. His major fields are diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerosis. He is an active member of the Korean Diabetes Association, the Korean Society of Endocrinology, the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity, and the Korean Society of Lipidology and Atherosclerosis. He is now actively involved in clinical and laboratorial research. He published more than 170 original articles and review papers in international journals on endocrinology and cardiology. He has also joined as a member of writing group in obesity and diabetes chapters in many publications. Dr. Lim's laboratory employs a wide range of imaging techniques to investigate body composition in animals and humans, its relationship with biochemical measurements, and in vivo pharmacology.

Université Laval

Doctor Maltais is a respirologist at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute and professor at the Faculté de médecine de l’Université Laval. His major interests include the physiopathology of exercise intolerance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary rehabilitation.  His researches, which are supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada's premier funding agency for health research, also focus towards the understanding of the mechanism of peripheral muscle dysfunction in COPD. In 2006, Dr Maltais won the Romain Pauwels Research Award presented by the European Respiratory Society to an investigator aged under 46 who had an important contribution to research in Respiratory Medicine. He became in 2009, the director of the GlaxoSmithKline/CIHR Research Chair on COPD at Université Laval. Dr Maltais lists over 150 scientific publications and he regularly speaks at international conferences.

Since 1998, he is Director of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute and Director of Respiratory Research at the same institution.

Harvard Medical School

Christos S. Mantzoros, MD DSc PhD hc mult, is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine. He has also served as a Professor of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

He currently also serves as the Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Boston VA Healthcare System and the Director of the Human Nutrition Unit of the Division of Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. Mantzoros sees patients, teaches and conducts research on obesity and diabetes / metabolic diseases. His work spans the entire spectrum from animal physiology and molecular biology, through observational, epidemiology studies, to physiology and pharmacokinetic interventional proof of concept clinical trials on new therapeutic agents important in the treatment of the above disorders in humans. He is considered a pioneer in obesity and metabolism and more specifically the study of adipose tissue as an endocrine organ. Recent major contributions by his research group include the elucidation of the physiological role and potential diagnostic and therapeutic utility of several adipokines and myokines such as leptin and adiponectin in human physiology and pathophysiology. His work has resulted in patents for diagnostic and therapeutic applications and has directly contributed to the development of new pharmaceuticals by major pharmaceutical companies and/or Intekrin Metabolic Therapeutics, a start-up which he have co-founded and which developed a diabetes compound from the preclinical stage through successful completion of phase of II clinical trials in humans.

Dr. Mantzoros has published as an Editor two books (one on “Diabetes and Obesity” and one on “Nutrition and Metabolism” with more than two editions each), his research has resulted in more than 450 publications in Medline, more than 120 publications under the collaborative Look Ahead Research Group, more than 150 chapters and reviews and has received more than 24,000 citations with a Hirsch Index H=81.

He has served as an advisor or head of the Scientific Advisor Board of non for profit foundations as well as governmental and non-governmental entities. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Metabolism and is on the editorial board of several scientific journals worldwide.

For his research discoveries and public health service Dr. Mantzoros has received three honorary PhDs, the Alexander Technological Institute of Thessaloniki has named their nutrition laboratories after his name and several Universities worldwide have awarded Dr. Mantzoros honorary Professorships (Romania) and visiting Professorships (Japan, India, Canada). He has or is supervising PhD thesis work in several nations worldwide (Sweden, Germany, Greece, USA etc) and is actively collaborating with many research groups worldwide. He has mentored more than 120 young scientists who currently hold key positions in clinical medicine, academia, industry as well as governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations.    

Dr. Mantzoros has been elected a member of ASCI and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. He has been given several awards including but not limited to awards by: the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (Frontiers in Science Award), the American Diabetes Association (Novartis Award in Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases), the North American Association for the Study of Obesity / the Obesity Society (Lilly Award), the American Society for Nutrition (Mead Johnson Award), the HypoCCS award in Paris, France, the Humboldt Foundation of Germany (the Wilhelm Friedrich Bessel Award), by the American Federation of Medical Research (the Outstanding Investigator Award), by the American Physiological Society (FASEB, the Berson Award Lecture), by the New England Hellenic Medical and Dental Association (Hygeia award) etc. He has also received the BIDMC, Harvard Medical School, award for excellence in Mentoring.  

 

Université Laval

Dr. André Marette graduated from Laval University in 1990 with a PhD in Physiology and Endocrinology. He his currently full professor in the department of Medicine and Scientific Director of the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods at Laval University, Québec, Canada. Dr. Marette is an international expert on the pathogenesis of inflammation, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in obesity. His research in the areas of insulin action and insulin resistance, and the mechanisms of inflammation, has advanced the understanding of the cellular/molecular defects leading to diabetes and opened new possibilities for nutritional and pharmacological therapeutic interventions. He has published over 130 papers in high-impact journals (Nature Medicine, PNAS, J Biol Chem., FASEB J, Cell Metabolism, Diabetes, etc…) and 15 reviews or book chapters. Dr. Marette holds several national and international research grants and awards. He also holds a Pfizer Canada/CIHR research Chair in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and cardiovascular diseases. He is currently leading a CIHR-funded team grant on the cardiovascular complications of diabetes. He is also leading a Canadian-Brazil research collaboration between Laval University and colleagues at the University of Sao Paulo on the discovery of novel extracts from Brazilian and Canadian fruits for the treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Marette has received several awards including the prestigious Young Scientist Award of the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Charles Best Lectureship Award of the University of Toronto, both in recognition for his outstanding contribution to diabetes research. Dr Marette has organized a number of national and international meetings and symposia and has been invited to speak at more than a 130 national and international meetings. He is currently Associate Editor at the Am J Physiol : Endocrinology & Metabolism section and also serves as internal or external referee to a number of international and national funding agencies.

Université Laval

Dr. Mathieu obtained his MD from the University of Montreal in 1993, completed a MSc in Biomedical Science and a speciality in Cardiovascular Surgery.  He is currently full professor in the Department of Surgery at Laval University and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathobiology of Cardiovascular Diseases. Dr. Mathieu is an international expert on the pathobiology of heart valve disorders and ectopic valve/vascular mineralization. His research expertise on inflammation and molecular pathobiology has shed light on how insulin resistance and visceral obesity interact in promoting the development of cardiovascular disorders. His team is involved in large-scale international studies in order to identify genes involved in the pathogenesis of heart valve diseases.  These findings have opened up novel potential therapeutic avenues and the development of new class of drugs. He has published over 155 papers in high-impact journals and holds several national grants. 

Manitoba Institute of Child Health

Jonathan McGavock is the Robert Wallace Cameron Chair in Evidence-based Child Health in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Additional Jonathan holds an Applied Health Chair from the CIHR in Resilience and Obesity in Children. 

He established the Centre for Physical Activity and Cardiometabolic Health at the Manitoba Institute of Child Health to study the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes in youth. Additionally, his group applies novel MRI technology to uncover the mechanisms through which physical activity reduces the risk for type 2 diabetes in youth. Jonathan has been partnering with several First Nations communities over the last 4 years to help establish programs to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents.

Dr. Jonathan McGavock is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, at the University of Manitoba. The aim of his Physical Activity and Cardiometabolic Health in Youth laboratory is determine the role of physical activity in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes and the mechanisms to explain these effects.

Tufts University

Dariush Mozaffarian is the Dean of the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, the only graduate school of nutrition in North America. The Friedman School trains graduate students and leads cutting-edge investigations in nutrition basic science and clinical research; chronic diseases including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancers; public health nutrition and community interventions; agriculture, food systems, and sustainability; global food insecurity and crises; and food economics and policy. This unique breadth and scope make the Friedman School a leading institution for evidence-based nutrition education, research, policy, and impact.

Dr. Mozaffarian is a board-certified cardiologist and epidemiologist whose research focuses on the effects of diet and lifestyle on cardiometabolic health, including global impacts of suboptimal diet and effectiveness of policies to improve diets around the world. He has authored more than 200 scientific publications on lifestyle and cardiovascular health, including on global dietary burdens of disease, omega-3 and trans fats, diets and long-term weight gain, and effective dietary policies. He has served in numerous advisory roles including for the American Heart Association, US and Canadian governments, World Health Organization, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He chairs the Global Burden of Diseases Nutrition and Chronic Diseases Expert Group (NutriCoDE).

Dr. Mozaffarian received a BS in biological sciences from Stanford (Phi Beta Kappa), an MD from Columbia (Alpha Omega Alpha), an MPH from University of Washington, and a Doctorate in Epidemiology from Harvard. Prior to being appointed Dean of the Friedman School, Dr. Mozaffarian was on the faculty for a decade at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He is board-certified in Cardiovascular Medicine and, until serving as Dean, was clinically active on the cardiology service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

VA Palo Alto Health Care System

Dr. Myers is a Health Research Scientist at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, where he directs the Exercise Research Laboratory, and where he has worked since 1992. He is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and a consultant to the Stanford Sports Medicine Program. He is a Senior Research Career Scientist Award recipient through the Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development (VA RR&D) Program. His 30 year body of research has focused on clinical applications of exercise testing and training in patients with chronic heart failure, physical activity and cardiovascular health, and the epidemiology of exercise test responses and physical activity patterns. He presently is principal investigator on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and the VA RR&D.

He earned his bachelors degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1980, his Master’s degree from San Diego State University in 1982, and his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1991. He is a former board member of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR), a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, an associate editor of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, a recipient of the Michael L. Pollock Established Investigator Award through the AACVPR, and a fellow of the AACVPR, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the American College of Cardiology (ACC), and the American Heart Association (AHA). He has published more than 400 papers, 40 book chapters, and has authored or co-authored guidelines on exercise testing, training, and related topics for organizations including the AHA, ACSM, American Thoracic Society, and the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Ian J. Neeland, M.D. is a current Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas and will be an Assistant Professor of Medicine starting July 1, 2015. He works with the Dallas Heart Study, a large, multiethnic cohort study designed to identify new genetic, protein, and imaging biomarkers that enhance our understanding of the biological basis of cardiovascular disease and help detect and prevent disease at its earliest stages.  His research interests include: body fat distribution and the relation of ectopic/visceral adiposity to cardiovascular disease and diabetes outcomes, the association of natriuretic peptides with adipose tissue distribution, the link between subclinical cardiac injury and neurohormonal stress with adverse outcomes in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy, and the utility of left bundle-branch block in the diagnosis and prognosis of myocardial infarction. 

Dr. Neeland is widely published in the field of obesity and cardiometabolic disease, having published original research articles in JAMA, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Obesity, and Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, and serves as an editorial reviewer for several publications, including Circulation, American Journal of Cardiology, and Diabetes and Vascular Disease Research.  Dr. Neeland has received several research awards related to his research including First Place in the Fellows’ Clinical Research category at the 2012 Northwestern Young Investigators Forum and First Place in the Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Council Young Investigator Award competition at the 2013 AHA Scientific Sessions.  He is also a member of the American Heart Association Early Career/Fellows-in-Training Committee in the Council of Clinical Cardiology and a member of the American College of Cardiology Cardiometabolic Working Group.  Recently, he was a faculty member on the first American College of Cardiology/American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Joint Cardiometabolic Think Tank in Washington, DC.

Dr. Neeland earned his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and completed his residency at the Emory University School of Medicine, where he served as Chief Medical Resident and obtained a Certificate in Translational Research, before coming to UT Southwestern as a research and clinical fellow in Cardiology.

Université Laval

Paul Poirier is a graduate of Laval University, Quebec, Canada. He received is bachelor degree in physical activity sciences and is master degree in experimental medicine studying the role of exercise training in Type 2 diabetes. He then went to medical school and obtained his MD degree in 1992 from Laval University where he subsequently completed specialty trainings in internal medicine and in cardiology from Laval University and also completed a PhD in experimental medicine studying the role of exercise in diabetes and the impact of diabetes on exercise capacity. He pursued post-doctoral studies at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre (Denver, Colorado) in the Endocrine division under the guidance of Dr Robert H. Eckel. He is an associate professor of the faculty of pharmacy at Laval University and is playing an important role in researcher training, teaching students and residents. Board certified cardiologist since twenty years, he was recruited in 2000 for medical leadership of the cardiac prevention/rehabilitation program at l’Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, Quebec (Canada). Dr Poirier has several research interests and has collaborated on a wide variety of basic science and clinical studies, clinical trials on local, national and international scales. His work has received funding from the Quebec Heart Institute Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health of Canada (CIHR), the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) and the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA). He is currently President of the Comité de promotion et prévention cardiovasculaire of the Association des Cardiologues du Québec (ACQ). Dr Poirier is an author or coauthor of more than 300 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals, 400 abstracts, 30 chapter books and hundreds of presentations most of which are in the area of exercise, risk factors management, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He is the first author of the American Heart Association Scientific Statement on the “Bariatric surgery and cardiovascular risk factors. (Circulation 2011), Cardiovascular evaluation and management of severely obese patients undergoing surgery (Circulation 2009)” as well as senior author of the American Heart Association Scientific Statement “Assessing adiposity: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (Circulation 2012)”. He has been chair of the Obesity Committee on the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism of the American Heart Association. He was part of the macrovascular subcommittee of the Canadian Diabetes Association for the Clinical Practice Guidelines in Canada 2008 and 2013. He was involves in the recent Canadian lipid guidelines. He plays a very active role in grant and manuscript review. Dr Poirier has a long-term interest in exercise, obesity, diabetes and cardiomyopathy and the role of weight loss and exercise in the management of these diseases.

University of Alberta

Paolo Raggi, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB and he is the current Director of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and Chair for Cardiac Research at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton AB, Canada. Dr. Raggi received his MD degree Summa Cum Laude from the University of Bologna, in Bologna, Italy.  He served a residency in internal medicine in New York City and he then completed a cardiovascular fellowship at the Long Island College Hospital-State University of New York in Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Raggi has been involved in research on mechanisms of cardiovascular disease in the following fields: chronic kidney disease, atherosclerosis discovery via vascular calcification via CT imaging, lipid metabolism, rheumatological diseases, HIV, diabetes mellitus and the metabolic syndrome. He regularly engages in the interpretation of echocardiography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance and nuclear cardiology imaging studies for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, subclinical atherosclerosis and evaluation of left ventricular function and viability. He is a regular lecturer both nationally and internationally and is a research mentor for several trainees. The results of his work have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Archives of Internal Medicine, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Kidney International, American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Radiology, Chest and several others.  He has contributed over 260 publications to major peer-reviewed journals and 26 chapters for books on cardiovascular imaging and preventive cardiology. Dr. Raggi has received numerous awards as best teaching attending and best clinical investigator nationally and internationally. He serves as a consultant for 30 scientific medical publications and sits on the Editorial Board of 4 peer-reviewed medical journals. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Society of Cardiac Computed Tomography of which he was also a co-founder; he has recently become a member of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

American Diabetes Association

Dr. Robert E. Ratner is Chief Scientific & Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association, the nation’s largest voluntary health organization leading the fight to Stop Diabetes®.

Dr. Ratner provides leadership and oversight of scientific and medical activities including research, clinical affairs, program recognition and certification, medical information and professional education. In this capacity, he oversees the Association's support of a broad range of professional education activities and the development of the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Recommendations, clinical consensus reports and expert opinions.  In 2012, the Association provided $34.6 million in research funds, funding more than 400 grants at 139 leading U.S. research institutions.

Prior to joining the American Diabetes Association, Dr. Ratner was a Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School and Senior Research Scientist at the MedStar Health Research Institute in metropolitan Washington, DC.  He completed a sabbatical as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow 2008-09, having served as the study director for the Institute of Medicine Comparative Effectiveness Research Priorities Committee, and a program examiner for health reform in the Health Division of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. 

He received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas where he also completed his Internal Medicine training.  He underwent fellowship training in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. 

Université Laval

Dr. Denis Richard is Professor in the Department of Medicine at Université Laval. He is the Director of Research at the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec (IUCPQ). He is also the Director of the Université Laval Research Chair in Obesity and the Director of the Groupe interdisciplinaire de recherche en obésité de l’Université Laval (GIROUL).

Dr. D Richard is an expert in the neuronal and hormonal pathways involved in energy balance regulation (control of food intake and energy expenditure). He pioneered research on the neurobiology of obesity in Canada. His main research interests are (i) the role of the neurosystems (melanocortins, melanin-concentrating hormone, endocannabinoids, mechanistic target of rapamycin) in the control of food intake and energy expenditure; (ii) the role of the sympathetic nervous system in the control of brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis and in the activity / expression of the uncoupling protein 1 and other BAT proteins in rats and humans; (iii) the mechanisms whereby leptin, corticosteroids and insulin influence energy balance; (iv) the mechanisms whereby gastrointestinal hormones and bariatric surgery influence energy balance regulation; (v) the role of the UCP2 in energy metabolism.

Dr. D Richard lists in career more than 250 peer-reviewed publications.

University of Barcelona

Director of the Lipid Clinic and Senior Consultant, Endocrinology & Nutrition Service, Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona

MD degree 1968 and PhD 1991, University of Barcelona. Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification, Barcelona 1970. Postgraduate training in USA (1970-1976): Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, New York, NY; Veterans Administration Hospital and Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA. American Board of Internal Medicine and American Board of Internal Medicine, subspecialty Gastroenterology, Boston 1973-75.

Member, founder and ancient vicepresident of the Spanish Atherosclerosis Society (SEA). Member of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) and International Atherosclerosis Society. Ancient President, of the Sociedad Iberolatinoamericana de Aterosclerosis (SILAT). Co-president 74th Congress of the EAS 2004 and president of the Scientific Committee. Member of the Scientific Committee of several EAS congresses.

Founder and ancient editor of Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis, official journal of SEA. First editor, British Journal of Nutrition. Member of the Editorial Board, Metabolism. Advisory Boards: California Walnut Commission, Fundación FLORA (Unilever), Pfizer, Merck, Roche, Amgen, Sanofi, Synageva.

Award to best scientific career in Nutrition, Fundación Danone 2013. Grande- Covián Award for a life career in Nutrition, SEA 2014. Golden Nut Award, International Nut Council 2014.

Dr. Ros has received numerous research grants from public and private agencies. He has published more than 250 original papers, over 115 reviews papers, 25 editorials, and 85 scientific textbook chapters. He has been a speaker at many scientific conferences and professor at many postgraduate courses in the fields of nutrition, lipid metabolism, atherosclerosis, and cardiac prevention. He has a 25-year experience in clinical trials with antiatherosclerotic diets, foods, and drugs. Actual research interests include plant sterols, blood membrane fatty acids, genetic dyslipidemias, cardiovascular risk assessment and vascular imaging techniques. He also led the nutritional intervention of the landmark PREDIMED trial of Mediterranean diet for primary cardiovascular prevention.

Queen’s University

Dr. Robert Ross obtained a Bachelor degree in Physical Education from McGill University, Master’s (1988) and Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the Université de Montréal in 1992.  He is currently a Professor within the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University. His research program focuses on the identification and management of obesity and related co-morbid conditions. Dr. Ross has published extensively in these and related areas. He is a Past-President of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, the current Vice-President of the College of Kinesiology in Ontario, a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association, and is this year’s recipient of the Honor Award from the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. He has delivered over 300 lectures to medical, scientific and lay groups worldwide.

Université de Montréal

Dr. Jean L. Rouleau is the Scientific Director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) of the Canadian Institutes of Health and Research (CIHR).

Dr. Rouleau was Dean of the University of Montreal's Faculty of Medicine from 2003 to 2010. He practices cardiology at the Montreal Heart Institute. He has also served as a member of the CIHR Governing Council from 2005 to 2010. A respected cardiologist and world-famous researcher, Dr. Rouleau previously taught at the University of Toronto and served as Director of the Cardiac Program and the Cardiology division at Toronto's University Health Network (UHN) and at Mount Sinai Hospital from 1999 to 2003. With experience in many university hospitals, Dr. Rouleau possesses a vast understanding of the worlds of teaching, research and care settings. He earned his M.D. degree from the University of Ottawa, and completed his clinical training at McGill University followed by postdoctoral research in San Francisco.

Dr. Rouleau has published over 386 scientific articles in journals such as the American Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Cardiology, Circulation, CMAJ, Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. He has been awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal, the Exceptional Merit Award given by the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), the Canadian Henry Friesen Award, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society's Career Research Achievement Award, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Annual Achievement Award and the Prestige Award given by the Quebec Medical Association. 

Harvard University

Dr. Sacks is Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health. He is also Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a senior attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he has had a specialty clinic in hyperlipidemia in the cardiovascular division. He is involved in research and public policy in lipid disorders, hypertension, nutrition, and cardiovascular disease.

His research program is a combination of laboratory research on human lipoprotein metabolism, and clinical trials in nutrition and cardiovascular disease. The laboratory research concerns the acute and long‑term effects of dietary and drug treatments on the function of lipoproteins in humans; the function in humans of specific apolipoproteins in VLDL, LDL, and HDL including apoC-III and apoE; metabolic pathways for HDL subtypes involved in reverse cholesterol transport in humans; and epidemiology of the relation between lipoprotein particle types based on apolipoprotein composition and CVD.

Dr. Sacks was Chair of the Design Committee of the DASH study, and Chair of the Steering Committee for the DASH-Sodium trial. These multi‑center National Heart Lung and Blood Institute trials found major beneficial additive effects of low salt and a dietary pattern rich in fruits and vegetables on blood pressure. Dr. Sacks was Principal Investigator of an NIH funded trial on dietary approaches for weight loss and maintenance, the PoundsLost trial. In this trial, 4 diets varying in protein, carbohydrate and fat content were tested in 811 overweight people for 2 years. The diets had the same beneficial effects on weight loss, and all favorably affected risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Sacks is active in national and international committees and conferences in dietary and drug treatments of dyslipidemia, and nutrition and health guidelines.  Dr. Sacks was a member of the Hypertriglyceridemia Guidelines Committee of the Endocrine Society. He is Past Chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee which advises the AHA on nutrition policy. He is a member of the Lifestyle Working Group of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute Clinical Guidelines for Reducing Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. Sacks teaches at Harvard School of Public Health as course director for nutritional biochemistry and for scientific writing, and at Brigham & Women’s Hospital on treatment of lipid disorders.  

Dr. Sacks was the 2011 recipient of the American Heart Association’s Research Achievement Award for lifetime research accomplishments.

Dr. Sacks has published over 200 original research articles and 85 reviews, editorials, and letters.

Université Laval

Since 1985, Dr. Sériès is the director of the Sleep Laboratory at the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, Canada and he is professor at the Department of Medicine at Université Laval since 1997. From 2004 to 2009, he was a National Researcher of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – santé (FRQS) which recognizes the excellence of a limited number of experienced researchers selected by a competition among outgoing Research Scholars. Dr. Sériès is very actively involved in the investigation and treatment of respiratory sleep disorders that are frequently associated with obesity and increased cardiovascular morbidity. His main expertise is the physiology of the upper airway during the wake and sleep phases. His high scientific productivity in major medical journals (Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, FASEB Journal, Journal of Physiology) is a testament to his international expertise in the field. He actively collaborates with many Canadian and European investigators. He was Deputy Editor of the European Respiratory Journal and Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He is the Director of the FRQS Respiratory Health Network sleep apnea team since it was established in 1995. Dr. Sériès is widely involved in multicentre projects such as the study evaluating the effects of treatment with CPAP on morbidity and the rate of transplantations in heart failure patients. For several years, his research projects have been supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). In 2001, he received CIHR support as the head of a project in the New Frontiers program dedicated to the study of the mechanisms, treatment and impacts on health of nocturnal cardiorespiratory abnormalities.

Sahlgrenska University Hospital

Ulf Smith MD, PhD, FRCP is professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. He has been Chief-of-Medicine and Executive Medical Director at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital and Dean of research at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.

He was President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2008-2011 and is currently Chairman of the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD). Prof Smith is much involved in European research policies. He initiated and was President of the Alliance for Biomedical Research in Europe 2009-2013. The Alliance for Biomedical Research in Europe involves 21 major professional societies in Europe, and represents around 400 000 European scientists.

Prof Smith is a diabetologist and the main focus of his research has been on pathogenesis and treatment of Type 2 diabetes and related metabolic disorders. He has published around 500 original publications/reviews in the research fields and has received many awards and honors for his scientific achievements.

University of Helsinki

Marja-Riitta Taskinen is an Emerita Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests include lipoprotein metabolism and genetics, insulin resistance and diabetic dyslipidemia. Professor Taskinen’s outstanding achievements have been recognised by several international awards including the Claude Bernard Award (EASD 2002), the Edwin Bierman Award (ADA 2004), the Novartis Award (2006) and the Grand Award of the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research (2011). Professor Taskinen was a member of the task force on “ESC guidelines on diabetes, pre-diabetes and cardiovascular diseases” developed in collaboration with the EASD in 2013 as well as a member of the EAS consensus paper panel. She also served as the President of EAS from 2006 to 2008. Her research at the Diabetes and Obesity Research Programme focuses on the pathophysiology of diabetic dyslipidemia in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Professor Taskinen's group is currently a partner in a new EU-project RESOLVE (FP7-HEALTH- 2012-INNOVATION-1) that started in 2013. She is also a member of the National Institute of Health (NIH) (1R01HL113315-01) funded consortium "Genomic and Metabolomic Profiling of Finnish Familial Dyslipidemia Families", which started in 2012.

Université Laval

Andre Tchernof is Professor of Nutrition at Laval University since 2000. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry (1991), a Masters degree (1992) and a Doctoral degree (1996) in Physiology-Endocrinology at Laval University. He then underwent two postdoctoral trainings in Molecular Endocrinology (Laval University Medical Center, 1996-97) and Endocrinology & Metabolism at the University of Vermont (1997-2000). He then obtained continuous salary awards from the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2000-2012). His research projects have been funded among others by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Diabetes Association and the National Science and Engineering Research Council. He also recently obtained a Research Chair in Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery. He lists more than 130 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. His research interests focus on the metabolic complications of obesity and body fat distribution, with a particular emphasis on adipose tissue physiology. His experimental approach combines cellular biology techniques with biochemistry, genomics and clinical investigation in humans. Published work has involved collaborations with many surgeons from various surgery services at Laval University-affiliated hospitals. This approach allows him to relate clinical observations with the cellular characteristics or mechanisms underlying pathophysiological conditions such as abdominal obesity and related cardiometabolic complications.

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES)

Dr. Jack Tu holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research and a Career Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.  He is a senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, where he oversees the cardiovascular research program. Dr. Tu holds an academic appointment as Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  He also serves as an attending physician in the Division of Cardiology at Sunnybrook Schulich Heart Centre in Toronto. Dr. Tu is an internationally-recognized researcher, who has published over 330 peer-reviewed journal articles, including multiple articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and other leading medical journals.  He has held over 15 million dollars in peer-reviewed grants as a principal investigator from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation, and other funding agencies. 

Antwerp University Hospital

Luc Van Gaal studied medicine at the University of Antwerp, where he graduated in 1978. He obtained a specialist degree in internal medicine and afterwards in endocrinology and metabolism in 1983. Since then, he has become responsible for the Metabolic Unit at the Antwerp University Hospital. In 1992 he became Professor of Medicine at Antwerp University and is currently head of the department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism of the University Hospital.

Professor Van Gaal’s main clinical and research interests are related to obesity, type 2 diabetes and lipid metabolism. He is a member of many scientific, national and international societies and a member of the Editorial Board of a series of scientific journals. He is a board member of the Belgian Association for the Study of Obesity (BASO) and Past-President of the Belgian Diabetic Society.  He is as a founding member of the International (IASO) SCOPE programme.  He is the running president of the Belgian Endocrine Society.  In 2000, he was the co-President of the 10th European Congress on Obesity, organized in Antwerp in May 2000.

He participated to and/or featured as (country) coordinator or principal investigator a number of clinical (outcome) trials in the field of obesity and diabetes.

He is also involved in a number of EU consortia for metabolic diseases.

He has published more than 320 papers in international medical journals, mainly in the areas of general endocrinology, obesity, diabetes and lipids and has contributed to a number of textbooks about obesity.

McMaster University

Salim Yusuf, Professor of Medicine, and Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University and Chief Scientist, Hamilton Health Sciences.

Salim Yusuf is an internationally renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose work over 35 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Medically qualified in Bangalore 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which he (along with Richard Peto and Peter Sleight) initiated the concepts of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis.

He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair and has received (among others) the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society; the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society; the European Society of Cardiology gold medal. He has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame; been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in 2014.

He has published over 800 articles in refereed journals, rising to the second most cited researcher in the world for 2011. He is President of the World Heart Federation, where he is initiating an Emerging Leaders program in 100 countries with the aim of halving the CVD burden globally within a generation.