Dr. David S. Ludwig Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health Endocrinologist and Researcher, Boston Children’s Hospital

David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD is an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. He holds the rank of Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Ludwig is founder of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Children's Hospital, one of the country’s oldest and largest multidisciplinary clinics for the care of overweight children. He also co-directs the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. For more than 25 years, Dr. Ludwig has studied the effects of dietary composition on metabolism, body weight and risk for chronic disease – with a special focus on low-glycemic index, low-carbohydrate, and ketogenic diets. He has made major contributions to development of the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model, an alternative perspective on the pathogenesis of obesity. In addition, he conducted some of the original studies linking sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food to obesity. Described as an “obesity warrior” by Time Magazine, Dr. Ludwig has fought for fundamental policy changes to improve the food environment.

Dr. Ludwig received the E.V. McCollum Award (2008) of the American Society for Nutrition, the Oded Bar-Or Award (2015) of The Obesity Society, and the Samuel J. Fomon Nutrition Award of the American Academy of Pediatrics (2019).  He has been Principal Investigator on numerous grants with 20+ years of NIH funding, including a K24 mid-career mentoring grant. He coauthored over 200 scientific articles, including original research and opinion. He was a Contributing Writer for JAMA for 10 years and presently serves as associate editor at American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He has written 3 books for the public, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Always Hungry? Conquer Cravings, Retrain Your Fat Cells, and Lose Weight Permanently (Grand Central Publishing, 2016). He appears frequently in national and international print and broadcast media.