UC Davis nutrition professor Judith Stern has been elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a researcher can receive. Known for her extensive studies of obesity, Stern was chosen on the basis of her professional achievements and involvement in critical issues affecting public health. As a lifelong member of the Institute of Medicine, she will volunteer her time and expertise to serve on national advisory committees for addressing public-policy issues in health. Stern has focused her research career on the many aspects of obesity, including relationships to fat cell size, insulin levels, diet composition, food intake and aging. She also has studied behavioral aspects of weight maintenance. Long involved nationally in applying scientific findings to formation of federal health policy, Stern chaired an Institute of Medicine committee that last year announced that obesity was at epidemic proportions in the United States and released criteria for evaluating weight-control methods.