NIH Researcher Joy C. Bunt to share details on relationship between obesity, type 2 diabetes

Dr. Joy C. Bunt of the National Institute of Health will present the second Skidmore Women in Science talk this year on Thursday, April 5, in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall. Her talk is  titled "Understanding the Causes of Human Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes–The Partnership between NIH and the Pima Indians and Your Tax Dollars" the lecture will begin at 6 p.m. Admission is open without charge to the public.

A reception, hosted by the Department of Exercise Science, will follow in the Palamountain Hall lobby.

"For more than 40 years, scientists and physicians, working in partnership with the Pima Indians of Arizona, have been collaboratively studying the mechanisms and complications of obesity and type 2 diabetes. This has led to better screening tests, prevention strategies, and treatments to manage the diseases. Despite these achievements, the rates of both ailments are increasing, and cures have not yet been discovered."

Bunt is medical director of the Clinical Research Section of the National Institute of Health's Phoenix Indian Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz. She will describe the overall mission and multidisciplinary approach used at the center to understand how obesity and type 2 diabetes develop. In addition, she will share some of the current research projects taking place at the in-patient Clinical Research Unit of this branch.

A graduate of Augustana College, where she earned a B.A. degree in physical education, Bunt obtained an M.S.Ed. in exercise physiology at Northern Illinois University, a Ph.D. degree in exercise physiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an M.D. at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Since 2001 she has been medical director of the Obesity and Diabetes Clinical Research Section of the National Institute of Health's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases in Phoenix.

Bunt's talk is the second this year in the new Skidmore Women in Science Lectures in Human Health. The program promotes discussion of issues that pertain to women in science, and is dedicated to generating ideas on how to create more connections among women in science at Skidmore, their courses, and their disciplines.

The group is supported by funds from the Lubin Family Endowed Chair for Women in Science, established in 1996 by Trustee Sara Lee Lubin Schupf '62 and her family to encourage the increasing presence of women in science at Skidmore. Patricia J. Hilleren, assistant professor of biology, is the current Lubin Family Professor for Women in Science.