Michael Goran named Atkins Chair in Childhood Obesity and Diabetes
Photo/Monika Guttman
Atkins, who chairs the board of directors of the foundation named in honor of her late husband, said Goran’s work “fits so well with our mission, which is to find the causes of diseases like diabetes and how to prevent this disease.”
Robert C. Atkins, the renowned cardiologist who pioneered a controlled carbohydrate approach to weight management and disease, died in 2003.
The Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation is dedicated to providing funding for research and education on the role of controlled carbohydrate nutritional protocols in treating and preventing a wide range of diseases and medical conditions.
In accepting the $2 million chair, Goran noted that the gift will “go a long way to relieving the epidemics of childhood obesity and diabetes. Childhood obesity has tremendous implications for our future, and change will have to come from great coalitions of people working together. This chair will help that happen.”
Goran is well known for his pioneering studies of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes risk. He has examined the role of exercise in preventing childhood obesity and reducing risk for type 2 diabetes in children, and he is also one of the few researchers delving into the ways in which ethnicity can complicate the health problems faced by overweight children.
Goran has won the Nutrition Society Medal for Research, the Norman Kretchmer Award from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and the Lily Award from the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. He is currently studying the differences in decreased sugar versus increased dietary fiber and weight training on obesity and type 2 diabetes risk factors in children.
The Atkins Foundation initially funded one of his small pilot studies on dietary interventions in children in 2004, said Goran. “The relationship grew from there.”
The endowed chair “provides funds that can be used to support new pilot projects or to branch off in new directions,” he added. “This has already taken the morale of our group to a whole new level.”
The Dr. Robert C. & Veronica Atkins Chair in Childhood Obesity and Diabetes at the Keck School of Medicine of USC is the first Atkins Foundation grant on the west coast, but it is one of several grants at major research institutions intended “to create a synergy that will move research in this field forward,” noted John Mezzanotte, one of the Atkins Foundation trustees present at the Edmundson Faculty Center event.
Other Atkins chairs have been established at Duke University and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In 1999, Dr. Robert C. Atkins and his wife, Veronica, established The Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation, Inc. The Foundation collaborates with leading professionals and organizations nationwide to fund research in nutrition and the management and treatment of obesity and associated diseases. With nearly $40 million in assets, it is managed by the National Philanthropic Trust, an independent charity and one of the top 40 grant makers in the United States.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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