George L. Blackburn

George L. Blackburn (February 12, 1936 – February 20, 2017) was the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Nutrition and associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School. He was also director of the Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine (CSNM) in the Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Department of Surgery, and director of the new Feihe Nutrition Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Boston, Massachusetts.

Early life and education He was born on February 12, 1936, in McPherson, Kansas, and was raised in Joplin, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a BA degree in chemistry in 1958. He then served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy service as a Lieutenant. He went on to complete his medical degree from the University of Kansas in 1965. Subsequently he completed his internship and residency at Boston City Hospital, Harvard Medical School. In 1973, he was awarded a PhD in nutritional biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He was a director of EChO - Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, Inc. beginning in 2015.

Published work In 2008, he published the weight loss book, "Break Through Your Set Point. How to Finally Lose the Weight you Want and Keep it Off."

He was a prolific author, contributing to hundreds of scientific journal articles and several books. A selection of his papers include: Improving the Weight of the Nation by engaging the medical setting in obesity prevention and control. J Law Med Ethics. 2013 Winter;41 Suppl 2:19-26. Impact of intensive lifestyle intervention on depression and health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetes: the Look AHEAD Trial. Diabetes Care. 2014 Jun;37(6):1544-53 Randomized trial of a telephone-based weight loss intervention in postmenopausal women with breast cancer receiving letrozole: the LISA trial. J Clin Oncol. 2014 Jul 20;32(21):2231-9. Impact of intensive lifestyle intervention on depression and health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetes: the Look AHEAD Trial. Diabetes Care. 2014 Jun;37(6):1544-53 Computational modeling of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in obesity: Impact of head fat and dose guidelines. Neuroimage Clin. 2013 May 31;2:759-66. The effects of separate and combined dietary weight loss and exercise on fasting ghrelin concentrations in overweight and obese women: a randomized controlled trial. Clin Endocrinol. 2014 May 5. doi: 10.1111/cen.12483. [Epub ahead of print]

Death He died from melanoma on 20 February 2017 at the age of 81.