Steven B. Heymsfield, M.D., is Executive Director, Clinical Sciences, at Merck pharmaceutical company. In this capacity he leads clinical obesity drug development in Company's metabolism division. Dr. Heymsfield was the former Director of the Human Body Composition Laboratory and Weight Control Unit and the Deputy Director of the NIH-supported New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. In addition, he was a Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Visiting Scientist at Rockefeller University and the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Dr. Heymsfield maintains an appointment at the medical center and his research there continues.
Dr. Heymsfield received his bachelor's degree from Hunter College in New York and his degree in medicine from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He completed his medical internship and residency at Emory University in Atlanta, continuing on to become a Fellow in Medicine prior to his Columbia appointments in 1986. He moved to Merck in November of 2004.
Dr. Heymsfield has published more than 350 articles covering topics such as obesity, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, malnutrition, pregnancy, body composition and caloric expenditure. He developed a mathematical expression, the lithogenic index, for characterizing bile proclivity for cholesterol gallstone formation that has been used worldwide for over two decades. Dr. Heymsfield and his colleagues were the first to apply computerized axial tomography (CT) to the study of human body composition. The group's accomplishments included the first validated in vivo 3-D organ and tissue reconstructions. These methods were later applied by the group to study liver diseases and obesity, including the first reports of in vivo analysis of visceral adipose tissue and skeletal muscle mass by CT. With his colleague Dr. Richard Pierson, Dr. Heymsfield evaluated early dual-photon absorptiometry systems for body composition analysis. This research led to award of a program project grant designed to evaluate body composition methodology and related clinical applications. Among the major accomplishments of this grant, now in its third five-year cycle, are new approaches to body composition analysis including multicomponent models, development of skeletal muscle mass measurement methods, refinement of imaging techniques, and creation of new in vivo neutron activation analysis systems. Dr. Heymsfield and his colleagues coordinated several national and international meetings to disseminate their research to the medical community.
In addition to his strong interest in biological method development, Dr. Heymsfield maintains an active clinical obesity research program. Using doubly-labeled water to measure total energy expenditure and food intake, Dr. Heymsfield and his colleagues were among the early investigators identifying the now widely recognized under-reporting of food intake in the obese. The group has published widely on obesity treatment options including the first human reports of the newly discovered hormones leptin and ciliary neurotrophic factor (i.e., axokine). Dr. Heymsfield has designed and helped build two human calorimeters for measuring energy expenditure over long time periods, and one of these is now in use at the Obesity Research Center. The group is applying these techniques along with newly introduced PET protocols to establish the mechanisms of the age-related decline in energy requirements.
The American Dietetic Association, the Chilean Clinical Nutrition Association, the Latin American and Argentine Medical Association and the New York Dietetic Association bestowed the title of Honorary Member on Dr. Heymsfield. Additional honors include Phi Sigma; Mosby Award in Clinical Medicine; Clinical and Research Scholar, American College of Physicians; Horowitz Alumni Award, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Burroughs-Welcome Scholar in Basic Science; Fourth Beaudette-Thompson Lectureship, Rutgers University; Hellenistic Medical Society Lectureship; Fifth Annual Clinical Nutrition Foundation Lectureship, Philadelphia Nutrition Society; Rhoads Award, American Society of Clinical Nutrition; TOPS Award, NAASO; 2004 Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology; GB Forbes Memorial Lecture, International Society of Body Composition Research; and the Daniel Rudman Lecture, Medical College of Wisconsin.
Dr. Heymsfield is past President of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition and of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. Dr. Heymsfield serves on national and international committees and he has co-authored Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Science reports, including several related to body composition and obesity in the military.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Steven B. Heymsfield, M.D.
Executive Director,
Clinical Research, Metabolism
Merck & Co., Inc.
126 E. Lincoln Avenue
P.O. Box 2000, RY34-A238
Rahway, NJ 07065-0900
Phone: 732-594-4448
Fax: 732-594-5179
E-mail: Steven_Heymsfield@Merck.Com