The Research Team
Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk
Marie Edana Corcoran Endowed Chair in Pediatric Obesity and Diabetes
Associate Executive Director for Population and Public Health Sciences
Peter Katzmarzyk, PhD, FACSM, FAHA is an internationally recognized leader in the field of pediatric obesity. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters on the topic of pediatric obesity and metabolic disorders such as diabetes. He is currently an editorial board member of the International Journal Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, as well as a founding member of the editorial board of Pediatric Obesity, an international journal devoted to publishing the highest quality, cutting edge research on the prevention and management of pediatric obesity.
Dr. Katzmarzyk has over two decades of experience in conducting large clinical and population-based studies among children and youth. He has been an active collaborator on several large cohort studies of children’s health, including the Quebec Family Study, the Canada Fitness Survey, the Physical Activity Longitudinal Study, and the Bogalusa Heart Study. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE), which is an investigation of the correlates of obesity involving over 7000 children from 12 different countries. ISCOLE represents a multi-national collaboration among all world regions, and represents a global effort to increase research understanding, capacity and infrastructure in childhood obesity.
In addition to his research efforts, Dr. Katzmarzyk has been involved in several national initiatives related to children’s health. He is currently a member of the Science Board of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, the Pediatrics Committee of Exercise is Medicine® at the American College of Sports Medicine, and the Scientific and Coordinating Committee for Health Measurement for the National Children’s Study.
In Louisiana, Dr. Katzmarzyk has spearheaded the development of Louisiana’s Report Card on Physical Activity and Health for Children and Youth, which has galvanized the research community around the topic of childhood health and has pooled resources state-wide to produce an evidence-based document. The Report Card is an advocacy tool designed to increase awareness of the health concerns associated with physical inactivity and obesity among children and youth in Louisiana, which provides a level of accountability on behalf of the children and youth in the state of Louisiana.
In addition, Dr. Katzmarzyk has served as the Chair of the Conference Organizing Committee for the Annual Childhood Obesity Public Health Conference which has been convened at Pennington Biomedical Research Center for the last five years, which attracts over 400 health care workers and child health advocates annually from across the state.
