Robert F. Kushner, M.D., is Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, Illinois, and Medical Director of the Wellness Institute at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Kushner received his medical degree from the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago. He completed his internal medicine training at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and a fellowship and master's degree in clinical nutrition at the University of Chicago. He is board certified in both internal medicine and nutrition.

An active researcher, Dr. Kushner's primary area of interest is clinical nutrition and obesity. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, textbooks, and book chapters. He is coeditor of Evaluation & Management of Obesity (Hanley & Belfus Publishers, 2002) and author of Dr Kushner's Personality Type Diet (Paperback, St Martin's Griffin, 2004; Hardcover, St. Martin's Press, 2003) and Assessment and Management of Adult Obesity: A Primer for Physicians (American Medical Association, 2003). Dr. Kushner has pioneered the life-patterns approach to weight loss, which is based on more than 20 years of clinical experience and research. This research is the basis for the website www.diet.com, for which Dr. Kushner serves as Medical Director.

Dr. Kushner is a member of many professional societies and presently holds committee positions in the American Society for Clinical Nutrition and the North American Society for the Study of Obesity. He is also President of the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists. In 2002, Dr. Kushner received the distinguished Dannon Institute Award for Excellence in Medical/Dental Nutrition Education given by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition.