December 3, 2013

Second SEC Symposium to Focus on Obesity Prevention

By: Sean Cartell
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

The 2014 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Symposium is officially less than a year away, and members of the SEC and lead university staffs are busy preparing for this academic conference-style event, entitled Prevention of Obesity: Overcoming a 21st Century Public Health Challenge.

Designed to address a significant scholarly issue utilizing the range of disciplines represented by the SEC’s 14 member universities and led this year by the University of South Carolina, the second SEC Symposium will take place September 21-23, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

“The inaugural SEC Symposium on renewal energy was a great success and provided an excellent opportunity to bring together scholars from all SEC universities,” said Torie Johnson, Executive Director of SECU. “We are looking forward to even more collaboration on this important topic.”

Obesity prevention and treatment are popular topics among media, lawmakers, healthcare professionals and others. And, while the subjects have gained attention during the past decade, the U.S. has not seen a significant reduction in population-level obesity rates over the same ten-year span. As a result, researchers at the next SEC Symposium hope to identify ways to markedly reduce America’s obese and overweight populations, through prevention.

The SEC Symposium is the brainchild of Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos, who saw an opportunity for each SEC university to work collectively on a single, big-picture academic topic of importance, and worked to ensure an event of this magnitude was a regular part of the SECU academic initiative.

“The member institutions of the Southeastern Conference are committed to a shared mission of fostering research, scholarship and achievement,” Zeppos said. “The SEC Symposium represents a platform to connect, collaborate and promote a productive dialogue that will span disciplinary and institutional boundaries and allow us to work together for the betterment of society.”

The two-day SEC Symposium will include keynote presentations, small-room discussions on topics of current research interest and poster presentations. In addition, SEC Symposium attendees will be able to visit the SEC University Showcase and attend the SEC Presidents, Chancellors and Provosts Reception, while undergraduate students will vie for the Excellence in Student Attendance award.