F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, MD

F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, MD is Professor of Medicine and co-Director of the Obesity Research Center at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Dr. Pi-Sunyer is also a Senior Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He was also Professor of Applied Physiology at Columbia Teachers’ College from 1985 to 2005.

After receiving a BA in 1955 from Oberlin College, Dr. Pi-Sunyer completed an MD from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1959 and an MPH from Harvard University School of Public Health in 1963.

He has served as president of the American Diabetes Association, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, as well as a Councilor of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. He has been a Fellow of the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Task Forces on Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences, on Medical Nutrition Therapy and on Dietary Reference Intakes on Macronutrients. He served on the 2005 and 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and also completed a term on the FDA Science Board Advisory Committee to the Commissioner. He chaired the committee of the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that researched and defined the federal government’s new guidelines for the prevention and treatment of obesity and also served on the ACC/AHA/TOS Task Force that revised the Guidelines.

His research focus is on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, obesity and diabetes. He is on the Steering Committees of the NIH-supported Diabetes Prevention Program, LookAhead trial, LifeMoms trial and Grade Trial.