Child and Adolescent Obesity

William H. Dietz, Walter Burniat, Tim Cole, Inge Lissau, Elizabeth Poskitt, Marie Françoise Rolland-Cachera, Michèle Guillaume, Martin Wabitsch, France Bellisle, Yves Schutz, Claudio Maffeis, Andrew J. Hill, Karl F. M. Zwiauer, Margherita Caroli, Jana Parizkova, Eva Malecka-Tendera, Marie-Laure Frelut, Carl-Erik Flodmark, Giuseppe Chiumello, Dénes Molnàr, David S. Freedman, Sathanur R. Srinivasan, Gerald S. Berenson, Alessandro Salvatoni, Beatrice Bauer, W. Philip T. James

Post-Graduate in Pediatrics 1979, Free University of Brussels with 'highest distinction' - in French 'la plus grande distinction' (19/20). Full career in the Pediatric Department of the University Hospital St Pierre, Brugmann and HUDERF. Assistant head of clinics from 1982. Outpatient clinic of pediatrics, outpatient clinic for obesity (from 1986), outpatient clinic for adolescents (from 1997). Medical manager of the Hospital 1993–1995. Active member of the International Physicians against the Nuclear War (Education Reward UNESCO 1984, Nobel Peace Prize 1985). Formed in 1990 the European Childhoood Obesity Group (ECOG) (with Dr E. M. E. Poskitt). Secretary 1990–1994, President 1994–1997, Board Member. The ECOG this year became the official Task Force for Childhood Obesity of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO). Links exist also with the International Obesity Task Force (WHO). Member of the Belgian Academy of Pediatrics, the European and International Association for the Study on Obesity, the European Childhood Obesity Group. Papers, mainly on obesity in children, in Sleep, Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, Nutrition Research, Risk and Safety Medicine, Acta Paediatrica, International Journal of Obesity. Book edited in 1995 with support of Regional Ministry of Health - Brussels: l'Enfant Obèse. Pp 1-120. Bruxelles, Traces de Doigts, W. Burniat Ed. Invited as lecturer to International Meetings: The Obese Child, Ancona 1990, 5th International Congress on Pediatric Nutrition, Naples 1992; Post-Graduate Course on Childhood Obesity, Pécs,Hungary 1994; 6th Workshop of the ECOG, Ulm, 1996; ECOG Satellite 8th European Congress on Obesity, Dublin 1997. Organiser 1st ECOG Workshop, Brussels 1991; 1st ECOG Satellite to EASO Congress, Dublin 1997; ECOG Satellite to 10Th EASO Congress, Antwerp 2000.

Medical statistician with a long term research interest in child growth and nutrition. Previously worked at MRC Pneumoconiosis Research Unit in South Wales, then MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit in Cambridge for 23 years. Now professor of medical statistics at Institute of Child Health. Developed statistical methods for constructing growth charts, and applied them to produce national charts for 8 countries. Has designed several novel forms of growth chart. Invented the Cole Calculator, a slide rule to assess child height, weight and body mass index. Joint editor of Body Composition Techniques in Health and Disease, CUP 1995. 300+ publications in statistical, medical, nutritional and auxological journals. Developed International Obesity Task Force cutoffs to define child obesity. Helped develop Baby Check, booklet to help parents identify seriously ill infants. Member, steering committee, WHO Multicenter Growth Reference. Editorial board member of Annals of Human Biology, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Statistics in Medicine and Public Health Nutrition, also statistical adviser to BMJ. Won 1976 Frances Wood Memorial Prize, Royal Statistical Society.

Chaired the Committee on Nutrition and Physical Activity in the Danish Government's 10 year Programme on Health Promotion and Prevention. Chair of the Congress Organising Committee of the 5th International Congress on Behavioral Medicine (Copenhagen 1998). Former Secretary (3 years), now board member of the European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG). Published several papers on childhood obesity. For instance Lancet 1994 about the strong effect of parental neglect on developing obesity in young adulthood. From 2001 Danish member of European Association for the Study of Obesity's (EASO) Pediatric Task Force Group Founder member and former Scientific Secretary of The Danish Society of Psychosocial Medicine (6 years). Member of editorial board of International Journal of Behavioral Medicine

Medical doctor qualified 1963, specialising in paediatrics since 1967. Worked with malnutrition with MRC (Medical Research Council of UK) in Uganda 1968-71. Then paediatric posts in Birmingham and University of Liverpool UK. Running obesity clinic for children from 1971–76 in Birmingham and 1977–93 in Liverpool. Research in Birmingham with MRC on later outcome for fat babies 1974-76. 1993–98 Head of MRC Dunn Nutritional Group Field Station in Keneba, The Gambia. Since 1998 attached to International Nutrition Group in the Public Health Nutrition Unit at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Co founder (with Walter Burniat) of European Childhood Obesity Group in late 1980s. Author Practical Paediatric Nutrition (Butterworths, 1988) and around 100 other articles and book chapters on paediatric nutrition: obesity, malnutrition; feeding problems; nutritional problems in children with heart disease; fetal alcohol syndrome etc. Past commitments include Chair of British Paediatric Association (now Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health) Nutrition Subcommittee; member of Panel on Child Nutrition of Department of Health Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy; member of Vitamin Working Party for Department of Health Panel on Dietary Reference Values; member Department of Health Advisory Committee on Drugs; Gambian Department of Health Vitamin A working party; Gambian Department of Health Breast Feeding working party; member and then Chair of Gambian Food and Nutrition Association; member Joint MRC/Gambian Ministry of Health Ethical Committee. First President European Childhood Obesity Group. Also long-standing involvement with International Federation of University Women (IFUW: an NGO of about 180,000 women in 70+ countries dedicated to development of women and international friendship and peace) – President IFUW 1995-98. Awarded OBE for services to medical research and the IFUW in the Birthday Honours 1998.