Robert Kushner Elected President of Obesity Society

CHICAGO --- Robert F. Kushner, MD, a professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, has been elected 2008–09 president of the Obesity Society, the leading professional and scientific organization dedicated to the study of obesity.

An internationally renowned obesity expert, Kushner is clinical director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity. He has authored more than 140 scientific articles on obesity and nutrition as well as three books, including the recent Counseling Overweight Adults: The Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Toolkit (American Dietetic Association, 2008). He is editor of the American Medical Association's Obesity Primer for Physicians and medical director of the diet.com premium membership program. He serves on the editorial boards of Obesity, Obesity Management, Journal of the American Dietetic Association and Today's Diet & Nutrition.

Kushner is past president of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists. In 2002 he received the American Society for Clinical Nutrition's Dannon Institute Award for Excellence in Medical/Dental Nutrition Education.

Along with his medical degree from the University of Illinois, Kushner has a master's degree in clinical nutrition and nutritional biology from the University of Chicago.