BUSM professor receives 2011 ACN Communication Media Award

Michael F. Holick, PhD, MD, director of the General Clinical Research Unit and professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) was selected by the American College of Nutrition (ACN) Awards Committee as the 2011 recipient of the ACN Communication Media Award. The award acknowledges a journalist, nutrition professional, author or a well known spokesperson for their outstanding media contribution to promote better nutrition. Holick was honored at the 52nd Annual ACN Conference in New Jersey where he gave the keynote presentation, "Vitamin D: A 'D-Lightful' Solution for Good Health.

Holick is an internationally recognized expert in vitamin D and skin research. Earlier this year he received the Delbert A. Fisher Research Scholar Award from the Endocrine Society. Holick has received numerous honors including the 2010 Van Slyke Award from the New York section of the American Association Clinical Chemistry Society. In 2009 he received the Linus Pauling Prize in Human Nutrition, the National American Menopause Society/Upsher-Smith Vitamin D Research Award and the DSM International Innovation in Nutrition Award. He was also the recipient of the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award from the Institute for Functional Medicine in 2007, the General Clinical Research Centers Program Award for Excellence in Clinical Research in 2006, the Robert H. Herman Memorial Award in Clinical Nutrition from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition in 2002, the Psoriasis Research Achievement Award from the American Skin Association in 2000 and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition's McCollum Award for his innovative research in the field of photobiology in 1994.

Holick also holds positions in the departments of medicine endocrinology and diabetes and nutrition at Boston Medical Center, where he has initiated numerous clinical research programs that have led to significant contributions in the basic science of vitamin D. He has made major contributions in the areas of skin disease, metabolic bone disease and calcium metabolism. Prior to joining BUSM and Boston Medical Center, he completed his residency and fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Holick earned a medical degree, PhD and master of science in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and a bachelor of science from Seton Hall in Chemistry.