Media Contact: Adam Pope, arpope@uab.edu
James O. Hill, Ph.D.
Department of Nutrition Science
Areas of expertise:
- Obesity
- Precision nutrition
- Nutrition
- Metabolism
- Physical activity
- Weight loss and regulation
- Wellness
Hill is a professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the UAB School of Health Professions. He is one of the world's foremost experts in obesity. For over 40 years he has been conducting research to understand how obesity develops, health consequences of obesity, and strategies to prevent and treat obesity. He has published over 650 peer-reviewed papers and multiple reviews and chapters in the area. Dr. Hill has been continuously funded by NIH since 1981 and currently serves as director and PI for the UAB Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC).
Hill was a co-founder of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a registry of individuals who have been successful in long-term weight loss. The NWCR is arguable the foremost source of information about weight loss maintenance. He recently co-founded the International Weight Control Registry (IWCR) as a project to continue to identify barriers to obesity treatment and factors that impact success in different populations.
Hill was an investigator in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and a site PI for the Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD) study. He is leading UAB efforts in precision nutrition. His work in precision nutrition aims to identify why individuals differ in how diets impact health.
He is the author of two weight management books for the public - The Step Diet Book and The State of Slim. He has developed several behavioral weight loss programs to treat obesity. He was a pioneer in promoting a small changes approach to weight gain prevention helped found a non-profit program - America On the Move - to promote a small-changes approach to weight management.
His current research continues to focus on lifestyle factors that impact obesity.