S.M.A.R.T. Advisor Biographies

S.M.A.R.T. ADVISORS

Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D. Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D. is Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics; Director of the General Clinical Research Center; and Director of the Bone Health Care Clinic and the Heliotherapy, Light, and Skin Research Center at Boston University Medical Center. After earning a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry, a medical degree, and completing a research postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Dr. Holick completed a residency in medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.   Dr. Holick has made numerous contributions to the field of the biochemistry, physiology, metabolism, and photobiology of vitamin D for human nutrition.  He determined the mechanism for how vitamin D is synthesized in the skin, demonstrated the effects of aging, obesity, latitude, seasonal change, sunscreen use, skin pigmentation, and clothing on this vital cutaneous process. Dr. Holick has established global recommendations advising sunlight exposure as an integral source of vitamin D.  He has helped increase awareness in the pediatric and medical communities regarding vitamin D deficiency pandemic, and its role in causing not only metabolic bone disease, and osteoporosis in adults, but increasing risk of children and adults developing common deadly cancers, autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, and heart disease. Dr. Holick is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, and a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Association of Physicians.  He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the American Skin Association’s Psoriasis Research Achievement Award, the American College of Nutrition award, the Robert H. Herman Memorial Award in Clinical Nutrition from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, the Annual General Clinical Research Centers’ Program Award for Excellence in Clinical Research, and most recently, the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award from the Institute for Functional Medicine.  Dr. Holick serves on a number of national committees and editorial boards and has organized and/or co-chaired several international symposia.  He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, and written more than 200 review articles, as well as numerous book chapters.  He has acted as editor and/or co-editor on 10 books, and has written a book entitled, The UV Advantage.