2018 Best Paper Awards
The Science Unbound Foundation has announced its 2018 award winners for best scientific papers by investigators at Indiana University-Bloomington, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The awards, plaque and cash prizes are for works published in 2018 in the areas of obesity, nutrition, statistics and public health.
Minoo Bagheri, PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and a former Postdoctoral Fellow in UAB’s Department of Epidemiology, was awarded best paper by a UAB-based investigator in the area of obesity/nutrition. Her paper, “Effectiveness of vitamin D therapy in improving metabolomic biomarkers in obesity phenotypes: Two randomized clinical trials” was published in October 2018 in the International Journal of Obesity, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0107-0.
Dympna Gallagher, EdD, Professor of Nutritional Medicine and Director of the Body Composition Unit of the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center, Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, was awarded best paper by an investigator affiliated with the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center. Her paper “Greater Neonatal Fat-Free Mass and Similar Fat Mass Following a Randomized Trial to Control Excess Gestational Weight Gain” was published in March 2018 in Obesity, https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22079.
Benjamin Mills, a graduate student in UAB’s Department of Biology, shares the best paper award for a UAB-based student in the area of obesity-related research. His paper “HP1B is a euchromatic Drosophila HP1 homolog with links to metabolism” was published October 22, 2018 in PLoS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205867.
Ren-Jay Shei, PhD, an Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington graduate, was awarded best paper by an IUB-based student investigator in the area of public health. His paper, “Repeated High-Intensity Cycling Performance Is Unaffected by Timing of Carbohydrate Ingestion” was published in August 2018 in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000002226.
Andrew Thomas, a second year medical student at UAB, shares the best paper award for a UAB-based student in the area of obesity-related research. His paper “HP1B is a euchromatic Drosophila HP1 homolog with links to metabolism” was published October 22, 2018 in PLoS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205867.
Nengjun Yi, PhD, Professor in UAB’s Department of Biostatistics, was awarded best paper by an UAB-based investigator in the area of statistics. His paper, “Negative Binomial Mixed Models for Analyzing Longitudinal Microbiome Data” was published July 26, 2018 in Frontiers in Microbiology, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01683.
The institutions named in the awards were selected on the basis of their demonstrated strength at promoting careers of young investigators in the areas of obesity, nutrition, statistics and public health.
