NIHR Cambridge theme lead announced as winner of new ‘Endocrinology Across the Life Course Award’ at the Joint Congress of ESPE and ESE 2025

 

Professor Sadaf Farooqi, Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at University of Cambridge and NIHR Cambridge BRC theme lead for Nutrition, Obesity, Metabolism and Endocrinology, was announced as the winner of the new ‘Endocrinology Across the Life Course Award’ on Saturday 10th May 2025. 

The award ceremony, which formed part of the opening session of the Joint Congress of European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) 2025 ‘Connecting Endocrinology Across the Life Course’ took place in Copenhagen, Denmark,

The inaugural Joint ‘Endocrinology Across the Life Course Award’ presented to Professor Sadaf Farooqi, is a prestigious recognition awarded to a clinician or basic scientist who has made a significant contribution to endocrinology across the life course. Nominations were judged by the Joint Scientific Programme Committee for the Joint Congress.

Professor Sadaf Farooqi is based at the Institute of Metabolic Science and is a Consultant Physician in Endocrinology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK.

She was educated at the University of Birmingham where she studied Medicine, and was awarded a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree with Distinction in 1993. After junior hospital posts in Birmingham and Oxford, she moved to the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in 2001 for research on the genetics of severe childhood obesity.

During her career as a Clinician Scientist, Sadaf Farooqi has made fundamental contributions to the discovery and understanding of mechanisms that control human eating behaviour and energy homeostasis. Her work has changed attitudes towards people with severe obesity by demonstrating its biological basis. By defining human genetic obesity syndromes and their physiological consequences, her research has changed the investigation, management and, in several cases, the treatment of children and adults with severe obesity

She has published over 200 papers in the field and has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of her contributions to science.

Professor Farooqi delivered a lecture on “Obesity: from molecules to medicine” during the Joint Congress Opening Ceremony, before being presented with the Award.

Sadaf commented

“I am deeply honoured to receive this award in recognition of our team’s work. Over the last two decades, we have learned that obesity is an endocrine disease. I look forward to working with my colleagues and members of both Societies to harness that knowledge to deliver treatments which improve the lives of children and adults with obesity”

Further information about the Joint Congress 2025 can be found on the Joint Congress 2025 website