Meet the 2013 winner of the PMF Division award!-- Peggy R. Borum
Peggy R. Borum is Professor of Human Nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition with a dual appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Borum received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1972. She then joined the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville Tennessee first as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then a faculty member. While at Vanderbilt she established the first core laboratory for the Clinical Nutrition Research Units supported by NIH. In 1983, she moved to the University of Florida where she conducts translational research concerning the role of nutrients in normal growth and development and in treating chronic pathologies in children such as treating seizures with a change in the ratio of dietary macronutrients. The laboratory that she set up more than 30 years ago to analyze all the amino acids, vitamins, and minerals in patient samples has morphed to investigations of the metabolome and microbiome. Her research in the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute is complemented by her Piglet Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that simulates the procedures and issues of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Dr. Borum has been a member of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (formerly AACC) since 1983 and has been active in the the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) Divisions Program throughout that time. She has had a variety of responsibilities for several years on the executive committee of the Pediatric and Maternal-Fetal Division and also on the Nutrition Division executive committee. In 1999 she received the Garry/Labbe Award for Contributions to Laboratory Assessment of Nutritional Status Sponsored by the ADLM Nutrition Division and Beckman Coulter, Inc. She has also been a member of the Animal Clinical Chemistry Division for many years. Much of her career has been spent participating in the integration of chemistry and patient care. She was the first President of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition who was a Ph.D. and not a M.D. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Nutrition and a Fellow of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. She is author/coauthor/editor of more than 80 peer reviewed publications, books, and book chapters on subjects that span from basic biochemistry and analytical chemistry to the care of critically ill patients and patients living with chronic illnesses.