Barbara GowerTwo faculty members in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are among 23 recipients of the 2015 Scientist, Clinician, Educator/Mentor & Young Investigator Awards given by the American Society of Nutrition.
Barbara A. Gower, Ph.D., has received the Dannon Institute Mentorship Award, supported by the Dannon Institute, in the category of Senior Investigator – Educator & Mentor Awards.
In the category of Young Investigator Awards, Daniel L. Smith Jr., Ph.D., has received the Bio-Serv Award in Experimental Animal Nutrition, supported by Bio-Serv Inc.
Gower and Smith, along with the other award winners, will be recognized in a ceremony Sunday, March 29, during the ASN Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Daniel Smith“The work of these scientists, from young investigators to lifelong researchers, has helped advance the field in leaps and bounds. I couldn’t be more pleased to honor these individuals,” said ASN President Simin Nikbin Meydani, DVM, Ph.D.
Gower, who is professor and vice chair for Research in the Department of Nutrition Sciences and an associate scientist in the Nutrition Obesity Research Center, focuses on obesity and energy metabolism, with an emphasis on insulin secretion/action and the role of the endocrine system. Her ongoing research is directed toward understanding the physiologic basis for the greater prevalence of type 2 diabetes among African-Americans in both children and adults.
Smith is an assistant professor in the department whose research looks at the interaction of nutrition and metabolism in relation to aging and disease. He is interested in topics including obesity, calorie restriction, calorie restriction mimetics, brown adipose tissue, ulcerative dermatitis in C57BL/6 mice, and systems biology of aging using budding yeast chronological lifespan.