2022 MARS Speakers
Jeff Brunstrom
Nutrition and Behaviour Unit, School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, UK.
Jeff Brunstrom was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (UK). In 1999 he took a lectureship in the Department of Human Sciences at Loughborough University (UK) and in 2005 he moved to the University of Bristol (UK). His current position is Professor of Experimental Psychology.
Jeff co-leads the Nutrition and Behaviour Unit in the School of Psychological Science. Major research themes include appetite, memory and cognition, expected satiety, dietary learning, eating behaviour, portion size, and food choice, and Jeff has published over 130 papers on these topics.
Gareth Leng
Gareth Leng’s career in Neuroendocrinology began in 1977 with his appointment as project leader at the Babraham Institute. In 1974, he moved to Edinburgh University as Chair of Experimental Physiology until his retirement in 2021, when he moved to France, while retaining links with his colleagues at Edinburgh with the title Professor Emeritus. He has published more than 300 academic articles and two books (‘The Heart of the Brain’ in 2018; and, with his son Rhodri, ‘The Matter of Facts’ in 2020).
He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology and a former President of the International Neuroendocrine Federation. He is an Honorary Member of the BSN in recognition of his role in founding that Society, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His research covered many aspects of neuroendocrinology, but a particular focus in recent years was on the oxytocin system and its involvement in the regulation of food intake.
Katie Page
Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California
Dr. Katie Page is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. Her research program has two major components: (i) neuroendocrine regulation of appetite and feeding behavior; (ii) maternal-fetal programming for obesity and diabetes. Her research has been recognized by Outstanding Investigator Awards from the Endocrine Society (2012), Western American Federation for Medical Research (2012), the American Diabetes Association Pathway Accelerator Award (2013), the American Heart Association (2014), and the Western Society for Clinical Investigation (2019). She has received external grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Dr. Page earned her bachelor of science (B.S.) and medical degree (M.D.) at the University of Southern California and completed a residency in Internal Medicine/Primary Care and a fellowship in Endocrinology at Yale University School of Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Sherwin followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University in Neuroimaging in Science under the mentorship of Dr. Graeme Mason. She joined the faculty at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California in 2009. Her long-term vision is to identify mechanisms and markers of disease in people at high risk for obesity and diabetes, whether related to in utero exposure to maternal metabolic disorders or other postnatal environmental influences, and to develop at test interventions to prevent obesity and its related complications.
Linda Rinaman
Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL USA.
Linda Rinaman earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. After postdoctoral training with Pat Levitt, Gloria Hoffman, and Joseph Verbalis, she established her independent research group in 1995 at the University of Pittsburgh, where she rose to the rank of Full Professor, directed the Neuroscience Graduate Training Program, and served as Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies. In 2017, Prof. Rinaman was recruited back to her undergraduate alma mater, joining the Dept. of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience at Florida State University. At FSU, her NIH-funded research program uses rodent models to examine the multi-synaptic neural pathways through which animals respond to emotional and physiological stress, and how early life experience modifies these circuits to shape life-long stress responsiveness. She has been an active member of SSIB since the early 1990’s, serving as President from 2012-2013.