David B. Allison
David Bradley Allison (born 1963) is an American biostatistician who is Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Science of the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is also Director of Office of Energetics, and Director of the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center at UAB. Allison founded the Section of Statistical Genetics (SSG) in the Department of Biostatistics at UAB, he has authored over 475 scientific publications and edited five books. He has won several awards, including the 2002 Lilly Scientific Achievement Award from The Obesity Society (TOS) (formerly known as North American Association for the Study of Obesity, NAASO), the 2002 Andre Mayer Award from the International Association for the Study of Obesity, and the National Science Foundation Administered 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). He was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) in 2007, the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2008, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2009. In 2009, he was also awarded the Centrum Award from the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) and the TOPS research achievement award from the Obesity Society. He holds several NIH and National Science Foundation grants, and has been a member of the Board of Trustees for the International Life Sciences Institute, North America, since 2002 and is currently Chair of the board.
Allison's research interests include obesity, quantitative genetics, clinical trials, and statistical and research methodology.
He serves or has served on the editorial boards of: Journal of Diabetes Research and Clinical Metabolism (JDRCM); Behavior Genetics; Clinical Pharmacology: Advances and Applications; Computational Statistics and Data Analysis; European Journal of Clinical Investigation; Global Epidemic Obesity; Human Heredity; International Journal of Eating Disorders; International Journal of Obesity; International Scholarly Research Network (ISRN) Nutrition; Journal of Obesity; Nutrients; Nutrition and Dietary Supplements; Nutrition Today; Obesity Reviews; Obesity; PeerJ; Public Library of Science (PLOS) Genetics; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; and Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases (SOARD).
Allison is also the founding Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Genetics.
Allison's research interests include obesity, quantitative genetics, clinical trials, and statistical and research methodology. He also serves as a frequent consultant and expert witness in the legal setting.
Education
- 1985 – B.A., Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
- 1987 – M.A., Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
- 1990 – PhD., Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
- 1991 – Post-Doc, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- 1994 – Fellowship, Columbia University and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center
Awards
Allison was the recipient of a 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). The White House established the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) to identify outstanding mentoring efforts to enhance the participation of groups underrepresented in science, mathematics and engineering. The awards are given competitively as part of a national peer‐review process. This is the nation’s highest award for mentoring given to no more than 10 individuals nationally each year. It was accompanied by a $10,000 prize, a Presidential certificate awarded at the White House on November 16th, 2007, and a personal visit with President Bush in the Oval Office.[1]
Distinguished Professor. “Distinguished Professor is a campus-wide appointment, recognizes international accomplishments, is to be limited in number, and is to be recommended to the Board by the appropriate President and the Chancellor in order to confer richly deserved prestige and honor on those selected to receive this designation” (UAB Faculty Handbook). Dr. Allison was the 21st person to receive this distinction in the history of UAB.
Elected to The Institute of Medicine of the United States National Academies, October 2012.
Recipient of 2013 The Wright Gardner Award from the Alabama Academy of Science (conferred March 21, 2013). This award was established by the Alabama Academy of Science to honor individuals whose research work during residence in Alabama has been outstanding.
Elected to membership in the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2013. The Society was established in 1967 by the trustees of the University to honor distinguished former Johns Hopkins postdoctoral fellows and junior or visiting faculty who have served at least a year at Johns Hopkins and thereafter gained marked distinction elsewhere in their fields.[2]
Recipient of American Society of Nutrition’s 2013 Dannon Institute Mentorship Award (announced Feb 2013, to be conferred April, 2013).
Recipient of UAB Graduate Dean’s Excellence in Mentorship Award for 2013 (announced Dec 2012, to be conferred April, 2013).