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Monday, Oct. 9, 2000 WRITER: Denise H. Horton, 706/542-8014, dhorton@arches.uga.edu CONTACT: Dr. William P. Flatt, 706/542-9943, wflatt@fcs.uga.edu PROFESSOR PROVIDES INVITED LECTURE TO INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ATHENS, Ga. -- Dr. William P. Flatt stepped in for ailing Nobel Prize Laureate Jens Christian Skou and provided the invited lecture at this year’s Symposium on Energy Metabolism in Copenhagen, Denmark. Flatt, professor emeritus of foods and nutrition in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia, focused his lecture on developments in energy metabolism during the past century and perspectives for the new millennium. “I was invited to provide the closing talk,” said Flatt, one of two people in attendance to have been at the first symposium in 1958. “But when Dr. Skou became ill, they asked if I would also provide the invited lecture.” Skou received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997 for his discovery of an ion transporting enzyme. The symposium brings together researchers from around the world every three years who are researchers in the field of energy metabolism, the study of the effects of dietary, genetic, environmental and physiological variables on how animals -- particularly domestic livestock -- use energy. When Flatt spoke at the first symposium in 1958 in Copenhagen he was 27 years old and just beginning his career in the field of energy metabolism. Nearly half a century later, Flatt has officially retired, but continues to conduct research using indirect calorimetry, such as oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, heat production, and respiratory exchange ratio to learn about factors affecting obesity in humans. Presenting the opening lecture was Dr. Grete Thorbek, now 90 years old, who helped organize the original symposium. -30- |
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