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Dr. George L. Blackburn serves as the first incumbent S. Daniel Abraham associate professor of nutrition and the associate director of nutrition within the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School. He is chief of the nutrition/metabolism laboratory and director of the Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine (CSNM) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

He also serves as associate director of the Boston Nutrition Obesity Research Center (BNORC). Funded by the NIH, BNORC is responsible for clinical trial research in the area of obesity and nutrition. In these roles, he is at the forefront of innovations in clinical care, scholarship, mentorship, and education in surgical/medical nutrition and obesity research. His research includes the role of fatty acids and proteins on energy biochemisty, the nutrient effects of bioactive components on cellular and molecular function, and the metabolic correlates of weight loss following surgical treatment of obesity.

He has developed various diet, exercise, and behavior interventions for NIH-supported trials in ethnic minorities and women. Recent efforts center on the development and dissemination of best practices in both surgical and non-surgical interventions for the treatment of obesity and obesity-related disease. As part of CSNM's mission to prevent and treat severe obesity, he has launched a novel scientific approach to exercise medicine for weight loss surgery patients. The CSNM has joined with the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston University Medical School to develop a progressive resistance training (PRT) protocol as a practical and effective form of exercise for weight loss surgery candidates. In an ongoing effort to understand the science of healthy living, the CSNM is working with neuroscientists to pioneer research into the neurocognitive correlates of diet and physical activity patterns in lean and obese subjects. This background in collaborative research establishes the CSNM as a leader in multidisciplinary obesity-related initiatives.