Former CDC Expert on Obesity to Talk on Controlling the Epidemic
William Dietz, M.D., Ph.D., former Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the 14th annual Dyson Day lecturer at 8 a.m. Wednesday, March 5, in the Class of ’62 Auditorium at the University of Rochester Medical Center, 601 Elmwood Ave., Rochester.
Dietz is an internationally recognized expert on obesity control. Prior to his appointment at the CDC, he was a professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Dietz was featured in the HBO documentary “The Weight of the Nation.” His lecture, titled “Have we turned the corner on the obesity epidemic?,” will focus on what pediatricians, parents and others can do to fight the root causes of the epidemic.
Immediately following the lecture, the Community Health and Advocacy Resident Education (CARE) residents will present a poster session in the Flaum Atrium adjacent to the auditorium.
Dietz has been a councilor and past president of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and past president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. From 2001 to 2003 he served as a member of the Advisory Board to the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. He has received numerous awards for his work combating the obesity epidemic. He is the author of more than 200 publications in the scientific literature, and the editor of five books, including Clinical Obesity in Adults and Children, and Nutrition: What Every Parent Needs to Know.