Introduction to Guest Editors

It is my privilege to present the readers of Seminars in Reproductive Medicine with a special issue that investigates the role of obesity in reproductive function. In the first section, Dr. Jensen has recruited authors that discuss obstetrics and contraception issues, and in the second part, I recruited authors to discuss reproductive endocrinology and infertility issues.

Jeffrey T. Jensen

Jeffrey T. Jensen received an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford in 1980. Following medical school at Emory University (1984), he completed an internship at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) (1988), and a master's degree in public health from the University of Washington (1997). Military service in the navy after his residency included a tour of duty in the Philippines. He joined the faculty at OHSU in 1992 and currently is the Leon Speroff Endowed Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He holds a joint appointment as professor in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Jensen maintains an active clinical practice, serves as director of the Women's Health Research Unit at OHSU, and is a senior scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center. His research focuses on developing new and improving existing methods of contraception.

Bruce R. Carr

Bruce R. Carr attended the University of Michigan, College of Liberal Science and Arts, and graduated with a BS in 1967 and received his MD degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1971. He completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1975. Following a few years in the military, he completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology in 1980 at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He joined the faculty in 1980 and became an associate professor with tenure in 1984 and full professor in 1988. Since 1989, he has held the Paul C. MacDonald Distinguished Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He was director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility from 1986 to 2005 and is currently the Fellowship Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.

As director of the fellowship training program, Dr. Carr has trained 34 fellows since 1986. All 34 fellows have passed their written boards in reproductive endocrinology. Many of these fellows have gone on to impressive academic positions. Dr. Carr has been very active in research, both basic science and clinical. He currently is a primary investigator or coinvestigator on two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and has conducted 70 clinical pharmaceutical trials since 1986. His current areas of research include regulation of steroid metabolism in the human ovary, gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, androgen excess, uterine leiomyoma, infertility, and menopause. Dr. Carr is the author of >600 scientific publications and abstracts and is the editor of the Textbook of Reproductive Medicine and Essential Reproductive Medicine and section editor of Endotext.org. He is currently the editor and chief of Seminars in Reproductive Medicine. He has received several awards and prize papers. Dr. Carr received the Distinguished Researcher Award in 2009 from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. He has served on the NIH Reproductive Endocrinology section and served as chairman of the study section. He has been a board examiner with the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology since 1984 and a reproductive endocrinology subspecialty examiner since 1989, and was director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 2005 to 2008. Dr. Carr served as president of the Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in 2008–2009. He was on the executive board for the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2008–2010 and served on the American Society for Reproductive Medicine executive board in 2008–2009.