Friday, May 9, 2025 - 12:15 pm – 12:45 pm

Sponsored by

logo

LUNCH SYMPOSIUM

The Obesity Scoop: Insights on Health and  Wellness [An Interactive Fire Side Chat]

Learning objectives:

Speakers:  
Dr. Atul Malhotra, MD

Sleep Medicine Specialist
Professor of Medicine
UC San Diego Health

Dr. Atul Malhotra is a board-certified pulmonologist, intensivist and research chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. He is active clinically in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. In the sleep clinic, Dr. Malhotra provides a full spectrum of diagnostic and therapeutic services to patients with sleep-related disorders, including sleep apnea, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy and sleep disorders associated with medical or psychiatric conditions. He has a special interest in the treatment of sleep apnea.

As a professor in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Malhotra is involved in training medical students, residents and fellows at UC San Diego School of Medicine.  Dr. Malhotra was the recent president of the American Thoracic Society (2015-2016). He has taught and presented his research on sleep-related disorders locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. He has published more than 310 original manuscripts in leading journals plus 220 reviews and chapters. He is a principal- and co-investigator on numerous National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants relating to sleep apnea and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for many leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Sleep and the Journal of American Medical Association.

He is an internationally recognized expert in sleep apnea and was named recipient of the 2024 Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Thoracic Society.

Dr. Jennifer L. Kuk, PhD

Professor, York University
School of Kinesiology and Health Science
Sherman Health Science Research Centre

Dr. Jennifer Kuk, PhD, is currently a Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University. Dr. Kuk has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 53; ~14,000 citations), related to obesity, health, and diet and physical activity behaviors.  Dr. Kuk is an author for the Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines.  Her expertise in epidemiological and clinical human intervention approaches facilitates collaborations across a number of disciplines. 

Currently, her laboratory is investigating the relationship between obesity and health through clinical human studies and epidemiological approaches. In particular, she is interested in the characterization of the metabolically normal obesity phenotype and is currently working on factors that identify successful weight management in adult and pediatric patient populations.  This work will help to clarify the most optimal weight management strategies for maintaining and improving health.  

Dr. Kim Lavoie, PhD, FCPA, FABMR

Professor, Chair of Behavioral Medicine, University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM)

Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Behavioral Medicine 
Co-Director, Montreal Behavioral Medicine Center (MBMC)  

Researcher, Chronic Disease Division, CIUSSS-NIM - Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montreal 

Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal

Co-Lead, Canadian Behavioural Intervention Trials Network (CBITN: www.cbitn.ca/)
Co-Lead, International Behavioral Trials Network (IBTN: www.ibtnetwork.org)

Chair, Canadian Network for Health Behavior Change (CAN-Change: www.can-change.ca)

Member, College of the Royal Society of Canada