The Greek government has nominated Dr Christos S. Mantzoros, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, for the position of executive member of the Board of ‘’ World Health Organization’’

Christos S. Mantzoros, MD DSc PhD h.c. mult.
Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Boston VA Healthcare System
Director, Human Nutrition and Metabolism Unit at BIDMC
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Christos Mantzoros is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has served as Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
He serves as the Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Boston VA Healthcare System and the Director of the Human Nutrition and Metabolism Unit of the Division of Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Dr. Mantzoros obtained an MD and DSc from the University of Athens Medical School, a Master's in Clinical Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health and a Master’s in Medical Sciences (Clinical Investigation) from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mantzoros has received two honorary PhD degrees, from the Univ. of Thessaloniki Medical School and Univ. or Patras Greece and a third one from the Univ. of Crete is expected to follow soon.
Dr. Mantzoros trained as a resident at Wayne State University and as a clinical and research fellow at Harvard Medical School. He has received Board certification in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and in Clinical Nutrition. Dr. Mantzoros currently sees patients, teaches and conducts research on obesity and diabetes / metabolic diseases.
Dr. Mantzoros practices Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Boston VA Healthcare System (VABHS), at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Joslin Diabetes Center, and teaches at Harvard Medical School. He has also served as a Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Mantzoros has been serving as a mentor to trainees at all levels, from undergraduate students to Faculty members and he is participating actively in Postgraduate CME Courses offered by our Institutions. At Harvard Medical School, he has served as course co-director for several courses in the auditorium as well as at the bedside. His teaching and mentoring contributions have been recognized as evidenced by several teaching nominations and mentorship awards. In his capacity as the Research Fellow of the Cannon society at Harvard Medical School, he was responsible for organizing and overseeing research activities and shaping honors theses of medical students of the Cannon Society at Harvard Medical School as well as several students from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He has also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Scholars in Clinical Science Program, a Master’s level postgraduate training program in translational research and clinical investigation, where he still chairs committees within the Program.
In recognition of his contributions to science and education, he has been given several awards including the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology Frontiers in Science Award, the Novartis Award in Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, the Lilly Award by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, the American Society for Nutrition Mead Johnson Award, the HypoCCS award in Paris, France, the Wilhelm Friedrich Bessel Award by the Humboldt Foundation of Germany, the Outstanding Investigator Award by the American Federation of Medical Research, the Berson Award by the American Physiological Society (FASEB), the BIDMC, Harvard Medical School, award for excellence in Mentoring, etc. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Metabolism and is a member of ASCI.
As the editor in chief of the journal Metabolism since 2010, he created a high quality, small team of distinguished consulting editors and put together a diverse, international editorial board, he redesigned the contents and appearance of the journal and its papers, he transitioned the submission and evaluation process of manuscripts to a fully electronic, web based platform and, thus, secured a significant annual growth of paper downloads and of the journal impact factor bringing the journal to a position of prominence.     
As the Chief of Endocrinology at the Boston VA Healthcare system since 2010, he designed, organized and secured competitive funding for the VA Endocrinology and Diabetes research laboratories which he created,  designed, organized, received ACGME approval and now operates the first VA Endocrinology and Diabetes fellowship program in collaboration with both Harvard and Boston University and, finally, he designed and organized a novel inpatient Diabetes Clinical Care and Education program for the Boston VA Healthcare system encompassing three main campuses and several outpatient clinics in Massachusetts. He is now spearheading an effort to create the preeminent national Center of Excellence in Obesity Education and Clinical Practice at VABHS.
In addition to having served as the Clinical Research Overseer of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, overseeing and coordinating clinical research within the Division, Dr. Mantzoros directs his own active basic and clinical research program. His basic research efforts utilize genomics-bioinformatics, molecular biology, animal physiology, and molecular biology studies to elucidate the role of new molecules important in energy homeostasis. His current translational / laboratory investigations focus mainly on the role of muscle and adipocyte secreted hormones, including leptin and adiponectin as well as their downstream effectors, on energy homeostasis and metabolic abnormalities including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and malignancies. Dr. Mantzoros’ work spans the entire spectrum from animal physiology and molecular biology, through observational, epidemiology studies, to physiology and pharmacokinetic interventional proof of concept clinical trials on new therapeutic agents important in the treatment of the above disorders in humans.
Recent major contributions by the Mantzoros research group include the elucidation of the role of adipose tissue as an endocrine organ and hence the physiological role and potential diagnostic and therapeutic utility of leptin and adiponectin in human physiology and pathophysiology. His work has resulted in patents for diagnostic and therapeutic applications and has directly contributed to the development of new pharmaceuticals by pharmaceutical companies (leptin was just approved in Japan and the USA for example while another molecule he helped develop INT-131 is now completing phase II clinical trials for diabetes in humans). His research group is now advancing two additional, novel compounds through preclinical studies towards initially proof of concept studies and subsequently clinical development in humans.
Dr. Mantzoros’ work has been funded by the NIH, the ADA, BIDMC, HSPH, foundations and industry. He has published two books (one on “Diabetes and Obesity” and one on “Nutrition and Metabolism” with more than two editions each), his research has resulted in more than 440 publications in Medline, more than 108 publications under the collaborative Look Ahead Research Group, more than 130 chapters and reviews and has received more than 22,000 citations with a Hirsch Index H=77.
Dr. Mantzoros  is an effective and efficient, top clinical and translational medicine investigator, study manager, educator, and translational scientist with more than fifteen years of independent (beyond post graduate training and fellowships) successful efforts in leading translational research and laboratory operations as well as worldwide multi-center studies / trials in collaboration with colleagues in North America, Europe and Asia. He communicates effectively in two languages (English and Greek) and can read in another two (German and French).
He has trained over 120 students and scientists and many of his trainees are now in top academic or industry positions worldwide (USA, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Korea, etc.).
Dr. Mantzoros’ values, deeply rooted in the humanitarian ideals of his ancestral classical Hellenic civilization and the ethical standards of his Christian tradition, were also shaped by the fact that, having been born into a low middle class family, he had to work since a young age very hard to fund his studies. The driving force, underlying his hard and persistent work throughout the years, has been his deeply rooted belief that improving the physical, mental and social well-being of his fellow human beings, using one’s skills in medicine and public health, is one of the most appropriate vehicles to make our world a better, more beautiful and more humane place to live in. In this context, he always practices and teaches his students that helping, as doctors, one person at a time is certainly a great goal in life. Teaching effectively, as a professor, other health professionals to deliver high quality care, could, however, be a loftier goal by allowing one to help hundreds of persons at any given time, albeit indirectly through the actions of one’s students. Delivering, as a researcher, novel diagnostics and therapeutics could prove to be an even loftier and nobler goal in life, since one can help millions of persons worldwide who may or may not know who worked hard to help them. Finally, the possibility of having the opportunity to work at the World Health Organization level can simply prove to be the ultimate goal for someone aspiring to help his fellow human beings, given that one can, through shaping and giving effect to the WHO decisions and policies, affect the lives of billions of people at any given time.
Towards these goals, Dr. Mantzoros’ mission has been and his activities have been focused on creating science driven and data based novel preventative, diagnostics and therapeutic solutions for the treatment of obesity, diabetes and metabolic disorders. His passion has been developing the careers of his mentees and helping them to reach their full potential as human beings and scientists aiming at preventing disease and alleviating suffering of their fellow human beings.