Clare Collins, PhD
Making an impact in behavioral nutrition! Are we there yet?
Laureate Professor Clare Collins is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, NHMRC Leadership Research Fellow and winner of the 2021 NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Grant Award (Leadership in Clinical Medicine and Science). She is Director of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Research Program in Food and Nutrition. Her research focusses on personalised nutrition technologies and programs evaluating impact on diet-related health in chronic disease and across life stages.
L/Prof Collins is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia and Fellow of the Dietitians Australia (DA). She has been awarded $29M in grant funding, published 450 research paper and supervised 35 PhD candidates to completion.
L/Professor Collins is a sought-after nutrition science media commentator, most read Australian author on The Conversation with >14 million readers and co-created the EdX Massive Open Online Course, Science of Weight Loss – Dispelling Diet Myths, completed by >67,000 people across 180 countries.
Ulf Ekelund, PhD
Dose-response associations, physical activity intensity and deaths attributable to physical inactivity – lessons learned from device-measured physical activity
Professor in Physical Activity and Health at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and a senior researcher at the Norwegian Public Health Institute (20%). Before moving to the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in 2012, Ekelund lead a research program in physical activity epidemiology at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, UK. Ekelund is leading or co-leading large international research projects, including the International Children Accelerometer database (ICAD), the world largest pooled database of device measured physical activity in young people. Ekelund is also leading an international consortium examining the dose-response and joint associations between device-based measures of sedentary time and physical activity with non-communicable disease outcomes and act on the scientific advisory committee for the ProPASS consortium. Ekelund has lead work packages in several EU funded research projects such as the InterAct and DEDIPAC projects. Ekelund is member of the steering group for the Lancet series on physical activity 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. He also serve on the steering committee for the Global Observatory for Physical Activity (GoPA) and has served on the American College of Sports Medicine board of trustees (2016-2019). Ekelund was on the International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) executive committee between 2012 and 2016. In 2019 to 2020 he served on the WHO physical activity guideline development group and was an international expert for the UK physical activity guidelines in 2018. Ekelund currently serves on the editorial board for Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Journal of Physical Activity and Health and the Journal of Sport Sciences. Ekelund’ s main research areas include assessment of physical activity and sedentary time; patterns and trends in population levels of physical activity; the role of sedentary time and physical activity for preventing chronic diseases across the life course. Ekelund have published more than 400 original publications since 2000 including papers in The Lancet, JAMA, The Lancet Public Health, Science, Nature and The BMJ. Three of his publications were listed on the Altmetric Top 100 list in 2012, 2016 and 2019. Ekelund’ s current H-index is 93 and he was listed as highly cited researcher in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 according to Clarivate analytics.
Abby C. King, PhD
Mobilizing Community-engaged Citizen Science to Advance Healthy Lifestyles & Health Equity Worldwide
Recipient of Stanford University’s David and Susan Heckerman Endowed Professorship, Dr. King serves as Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs of Epidemiology & Population Health and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the founder and Faculty Director of the Our Voice Citizen Science Initiative and Global Network. Recipient of the Outstanding Scientific Contributions in Health Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association, her research focuses on the development, evaluation, and translation of public health interventions to reduce chronic disease and its key behavioral risk factors. She uses state-of-the-art communication technologies, community-based participatory research perspectives, and citizen science approaches to address health disparities among disadvantaged populations worldwide. Dr. King has served on a number of government taskforces in the U.S. and abroad, including membership on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Scientific Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020. She co-chaired the USDHHS 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee and was one of 10 U.S. scientists honored by the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2014 for outstanding research targeting health inequities. She served as President of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) from 2011-2012. Her research on citizen science to promote healthy environments for all has been honored with an international excellence award in addition to Stanford Medical School’s inaugural 2018 faculty Community Engagement Award, SBM’s 2018 Research to Practice Award, and Stanford Medicine’s 2021 STAR Award. She received the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity’s inaugural lifetime achievement award in 2019, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Distinguished Scientist Award in 2020. In 2022, Dr. King was the winner of Stanford University’s Miriam Aaron Roland Prize for Volunteer and Public Service.
Edward Maibach, PhD
Protecting human and planetary health: New unique and necessary roles for health professionals
Edward Maibach is a Distinguished University Professor and Director of the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. His research illuminates public understanding of climate change and strategies for improving it. Dr. Maibach previously served as an Associate Director of the National Cancer Institute and Worldwide Director of Social Marketing at Porter Novelli; he is currently a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.