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John Buse, MD, PhD, the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and Elizabeth Davis-Mayer, PhD, the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Medicine, will be honored at the annual American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions for their clinical research and epidemiological work.


John Buse, MD, PhD, the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and Elizabeth Davis-Mayer, PhD, the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Medicine, will be honored at the annual American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions for their clinical research and epidemiological work.

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John Buse, MD, PhD
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Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD

May 1, 2019

John B. Buse, MD, PhD, is the recipient of the 2019 Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award given by the American Diabetes Association. This award recognizes exceptional contributions in patient-oriented clinical outcomes research that have had a significant impact on diabetes prevention and treatment.

Elizabeth J. Mayer-Davis, PhD, is the recipient of the 2019 Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology. Supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Merck , this award recognizes significant contributions to the field of diabetes epidemiology. Mayer-Davis will deliver the Kelly West Award Lecture on Sunday, June 9.

Buse is the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor, chief of the division of endocrinology in the department of medicine, director of the UNC Diabetes Care Center, Director of the NC Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute and Executive Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of North Carolina. Embodying excellence and innovative leadership, Buse has led or participated in more than 200 clinical studies and dozens of epidemiologic analyses and translational projects.

His breadth of investigation ranges from early stage clinical characterization of new molecular entities to seminal trials, including critical drug safety outcomes studies. He is renowned for co-chairing the ACCORD trial, which demonstrated a lack of benefit of more intensive goals for glycemia, blood pressure and lipids, and for chairing the LEADER trial, which was the first demonstration of the broad effect of the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide to reduce cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk.

Buse has been listed since 2015 among Thompson Reuters “Highly Cited Researchers” recognizing the top 1 percent of global investigators and is widely sought after as a lecturer, consultant, collaborator and clinical trial investigator.

Mayer-Davis is the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Medicine, and chair of the department of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Medicine. With research focused on the epidemiology of diabetes in youth and young adults, her body of work is described in more than 300 peer reviewed papers and book chapters. Mayer-Davis has conducted trials in type 2 diabetes prevention and type 1 diabetes treatment. She has also performed observational studies of diabetes complications and the role of nutrition. Much of her work has focused on translating research to understand clinical and public health implications.

Both will be honored at the 79th ADA Scientific Sessions.