Educational Enrichment

MNOC Seminar Series

The Graduate Nutrition Program currently sponsors a weekly seminar series through nine months of the year.  This program covers all aspects of nutrition, including basic, clinical, epidemiology, and education.  In addition, there are regular research and clinical seminars in Endocrinology, Pharmacology, Veterinary Biology, Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience.

Program Director: Dr. Michael D. Levitt

lecture hallEducation Enrichment Program serves two functions;

  1. to inform the community within the involved institutions of the progress and accomplishments of obesity research to incorporate research findings into recommendations;
  2. services for educating the general public.

The Education Enrichment Program assists the Minnesota Obesity Center in attaining its objectives that pertain to stimulating new interests and new collaborations in research into obesity, eating disorders and energy metabolism supporting education in obesity and eating disorders in our academic and public communities.

 

The seminar series has been instrumental in this regard. Seminars are open to the public as well as the academic community. When outside speakers are brought in, Center investigators are provided with opportunities to meet with the speaker to discuss research ideas and results either on an individual basis or in small groups.  Likewise, when the External Scientific Advisory Committee members come for site visits, they present seminars on relevant topics and meet with groups or individuals to discuss research findings.

The Minnesota Obesity Center helped to organize and sponsor the First International Ancel Keys Symposium on Nutrition and Health: The International Obesity Epidemic that took place in fall 2004.  Members of the Center were instrumental in organizing the successful Whole Grains & Health Global Summit in spring 2005. These conferences provide forums for discussions of obesity research findings among local investigators and nationally recognized obesity experts.

The Minnesota Obesity Center sponsors annual center-wide retreats and community-wide Obesity Research Days, bringing in outside speakers for the latter event.  These events provide opportunities for investigators to engage in discussions that stimulate new interests and new collaborations in research into obesity, eating disorders and energy metabolism while supporting education in obesity and eating disorders.  The popularity of these events has increased steadily over the years.  These events have served to increase public awareness of the Minnesota Obesity Center.  These center-sponsored events have attracted investigators from new arenas, and we are now observing a growing number of interactions involving investigators from the MN Department of Health, HealthPartners, Park Nicollet, and the Hennepin County Medical Center.