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Dr. Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., Harvard University Medical School, Boston, MA

Dr. Walter Willett is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, studied food science at Michigan State University, and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School before obtaining a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Willett has focused much of his work over the last 25 years on the development of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods starting in 1980 in the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Together, these cohorts that include nearly 300,000 men and women with repeated dietary assessments are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of food choices.

Dr. Willett has published over 1,000 articles, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for heart disease and cancer, and has written the textbook, Nutritional Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press. His book for the general public, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating, has appeared on most major bestseller lists, and he has recently published a second book, co-authored with Mollie Katzen, for a general audience, Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less. Dr. Willett is the most cited nutritionist internationally, and is among the five most cited persons in all fields of clinical science. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of many national and international awards for his research.

(Left to right: Dr. Walter Willett, Michael Getz, Debra Getz ('85), Ken Getz ('84), Dr. KC Hayes,
Ricki Getz and Dr. Irwin Getz, at the first seminar of the Heart Research Series, held on October 3, 2007.)

Dr. Vassilis Zannis, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry, Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA

Vassilis I Zannis received his PhD in biochemistry from UC Berkeley, USA and received postdoctoral training in biological sciences at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School, MIT and Harvard Medical School, where he also served for two years as an Assistant Professor. He was recruited to Boston University in 1984 where he established the Section of Molecular Genetics. Currently he is Professor of Medicine/Biochemistry and Director of Molecular Genetics at Boston University School of Medicine. He also served as a Visiting Professor since 1986 at the University of Crete Medical School, where he focused on the development of research programs, the establishment of an MD-PhD program, and the establishment of an exchange program between medical students of Boston University and the University of Crete.

Dr. Zannis' major scientific contributions include the elucidation of the apoE polymorphism in humans, the cloning expression and transcriptional regulation of the human apolipoprotein genes and the functions of apolipoproteins A-I and apoE. He has published 135 original articles, 43 reviews and has over 5,000 citations of his published work. Ten of Dr. Zannis’ former students and postdoctoral trainees have currently faculty positions in Greek universities or research institutes. Another sixteen have similar faculty or staff positions in universities, research institutes or pharmaceutical industries in Europe or the US.

(Left to right: Michael Getz, Ken Getz ('84), Dr. Vassilis Zannis, Dr. KC Hayes, at the second seminar of the Heart Research Series, held on February 6, 2008.)