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Sackler Colloquium on “Reproducibility of Research: Issues and Proposed Remedies”

I had the pleasure to attend and contribute to a Sackler Colloquium on “Reproducibility of Research: Issues and Proposed Remedies” organized by David B. Allison, Richard Shiffrin and Victoria Stodden. While I could spend time here summarizing it, others have done so already:

If you have the time, I encourage you to watch the videos themselves. We have been adding a few of them to the Obesity and Energetics Offerings each week so those interested can drink slowly from the aquifer of information provided at the colloquium.

Awarded the Science Unbound Foundation Best Paper Award

Our paper, “Belief beyond the evidence: using the proposed effect of breakfast on obesity to show 2 practices that distort scientific evidence,” received the 2014 Best Paper Award from the Science Unbound Foundation for a paper by a University of Alabama at Birmingham investigator in the area of nutrition and obesity. The Science Unbound Foundation has as its mission:

“Furthering scientific knowledge in the service of health, happiness, and quality of life of humankind through scientific research and education.”

Thank you to the foundation for recognizing our work.

Promoted to Scientist

On June 1st of 2014 I was promoted from Postdoctoral Trainee to Scientist within the Office of Energetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I am excited to continue developing my research program with my colleagues at UAB and appreciate the flexibility I am being afforded by the Office of Energetics as my wife, who is an Assistant Professor at Clemson, and I continue to figure out the two body problem (or, as Dr. David Allison once put it, the two body advantage!).

First place: Postdoc Research Day Oral Competition

The Postdotoral Association and the Office of Postdoctoral Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham held PostDoc Research Day 2014 with oral presentation competitions. I was awarded first place for my presentation entitled, “Using crowdsourcing to evaluate published scientific literature: Methods and example.” Every presentation in the session was well delivered and quite interesting, which made being selected first place truly an honor next to the other fantastic presentations.

Bias study recommended for Faculty of 1000, receives great media coverage

Access the recommendation on F1000Prime Our recent study investigating the influence of distorted research reporting on the belief in the presumed effect of breakfast on obesity has been recommended for the Faculty of 1000! “F1000Prime is an in-depth directory of top articles in biology and medicine, as recommended by our Faculty of more than 5,000 expert scientists and clinical researchers, assisted by their designated associates.”

Our study has also received media coverage from such excellent news outlets as NPR, The New York Times, Slate, and other great information outlets.

Winner of OPE Career Enhancement and Postdoctoral Travel Awards

The Office of Postdoctoral Education at UAB has awarded me two Fall 2013 awards: the Career Enhancement Award and the Postdoctoral Travel Award. The Career Enhancement Award is designed to fund extramural training activities. In my case, I have used the $1500 award to attend the Statistical Horizons Meta-Analysis course this summer. The Postdoctoral Travel Award is intended to fund travel to a conference to present scientific work. This $500 award will be used to travel to the Obesity Society meetings in Atlanta this fall. My gratitude to the OPE for supporting my career development.

First place: Nutritional Epidemiology Postdoc Poster Competition

As a follow up to being announced as one of the finalists for the Nutritional Epidemiology Postdoc research competition at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meetings during the Experimental Biology meetings, I was named the winner of the poster competition. My work, titled “Sound advice or biased reporting? Breakfast as a strategy to reduce or prevent obesity or weight gain,” was presented at the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Interest Section business meeting alongside some fantastic work. The competition received a record number of submissions and I am honored to receive this recognition.Thank you to my co-authors Drs. Michelle M Bohan Brown and David Allison.

David Allison wins Excellence in Mentorship Award

Congratulations to David Allison, Ph.D., and the other winners of the 2013 Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentorship. Nomination required five letters of support, but we collected 11 letters of support for Dr. Allison , with many others providing verbal support. Click here for more information and for a list of the other winners.

First place: 2013 Public Health Research Day

Public Health Research Day Award

The UAB School of Public Health celebrated Public Health week with activities such as Public Health Research Day. Awards were distributed for the top three posters from faculty, staff, postdocs, and students. I was honored with first place in the postdoctoral category. Congratulations to the other winners!