Biography
Gerry Leisman is Director of the Israeli government supported National Institute for Brain and Rehabilitation Sciences (NIBRS) project in Nazareth, Israel and Scientific Director of the affiliated (NIBRS-USA), Full Professor in the School of Health Science at the University of Haifa and Professor of Restorative Neurology at Universidad de Ciencias Médicas Facultad Manuel Fajardo, Havana, Cuba, where affiliated electrophysiology and imaging science laboratories are found. He has examined self-organizing systems in the nervous system applied to cognitive functions in memory, kinesiology, optimization, consciousness, and autism. He has applied optimization strategies and graph theory to movement, gait, and cognition. In the 1970’s, he was one of the first to identify functional disconnectivities in the brain. His work in Rehabilitation Sciences, has applied the tools of Industrial Engineering to those with developmental disabilities and to health promotion in adults using the tools of neuro- and cognitive sciences. Gerry Leisman is the first recipient of the International Association of Functional Neurology’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also instrumental in having NIBRS-Israel partner with some of Israel's northern hospitals to provide urgent care services for casualties of the Syrian Civil War who are found at the Syrian Israeli border and brought to Israel for urgent intervention. NIBRS-Israel is to be investigating novel methods for effective but expedited methods of rehabilitation. Dr. Leisman has published over 500 papers, and numbers of books in the Biomedical, Rehabilitation, Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, Physics, and Biomedical Engineering literature and is the holder of patents. He and NIBRS-Israel have become a NIH/FDA approved clinical trials site and are working with US and other corporations to evaluate new technologies and devices in functional neurology applications. He is the Editor-in Chief of the journal, Functional Neurology, Rehabilitation and Ergonomics.
Research Interest
Weight Management and Neurocognitive Function
Changcheng Zhou
Director and Associate Professor
University of Kentucky
USA
Biography
Dr. Zhou received his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of California, Irvine. He performed postdoctoral work at the University of Washington and the Rockefeller University before joining the faculty of the University of Kentucky. Dr. Zhou is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences and the Director of Center for Metabolic Disease Research at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Zhou also holds an Adjunct Faculty position at the Rockefeller University.
Research Interest
Nutrition
Gitanjali Srivastava
MD
Louisiana State University School of Medicine
USA
Biography
Dr. Gitanjali Srivastava is an obesity medicine specialist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. She is board certified in internal medicine, pediatrics and obesity medicine, and is the founder of Florida Hospital’s clinical weight loss program. Dr. Srivastava earned her medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. She completed her residency in the combined internal medicine and pediatrics program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and received advanced training in obesity medicine and clinical nutrition during her fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Dr. Srivastava has special interest in obesity medicine, energy expenditure and balance, maternal-fetal programming as it relates to pregnancy and obesity, anti-obesity medications, obesity pharmacotherapy and pediatric weight management. Throughout her medical training and career, Dr. Srivastava has taught an unprecedented amount and presented on both a national and international level in obesity medicine, provided medical services and education to both patients and medical students, held numerous committee and board positions and volunteered her expertise toward numerous community service and medical outreach projects. Her impressive honors and professional affiliations further prove her dedication to the field of medicine. While completing her fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Srivastava spear-headed the first American Board of Obesity Medicine Curriculum for Fellows and The Blackburn Board Review Component. She served as Chair-Elect (2013-2014) and Chair of the Clinical Management Section of The Obesity Society for 2014-2015.
Research Interest
pediatrics and obesity medicine
