President - Professor Vojtech Hainer (2006-2009)

Professor Vojtech Hainer graduated from the Faculty of General Medicine at Charles University, Prague in 1967. He progressed through 1st and 2nd grade in internal medicine, before gaining a PhD in 1983 on the topic of "Neurotransmitters and Hormonal Secretions". From 1967 until 2002 he was employed at Charles University in, first in the Department of Physiology, then in Internal Medicine. Since 2002, he has been the Director of the Endocrine Institute in Prague.

Professor Hainer has published over 180 journal papers as well as a number of text books for physicians, medical students and nurses. He has also published a great deal of educational material for obese patients. His research has focussed on obesity management, including very low calorie diets, methods of body composition and body fat assessment and factors affecting the long-term outcome of obesity treatment.

Professor Hainer co-founded the Obesity Section of the Czech Endocrine Society in 1987. In 1993, he co-founded the Czech Society for the Study of Obesity, of which he was president until 2002, and is currently vice-president. His extensive international responsibilities include council membership of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and of the IOTF Working Group on Obesity Management from 1996 until 2005. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of the "Diabetes, Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition" since 1998. In 2003, Professor Hainer also became chairman of the Obesity Foundation and President-Elect of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) and subsequently became President in 2006.

Obesity Management Centre
Endocrine Institute
Narodni 8
116 94 Prague 1
Czech Republic
Tel: +42 02 24905276
Fax: +42 02 24905325
E-mail: vhainer@endo.cz