Juleen R. Zierath is a native of Milwaukee Wisconsin. She is Professor of Experimental Physiology at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden and Professor of Integrative Physiology and Executive Director at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She performs translational research to delineate mechanisms for the development of insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes. Her current work focuses on the role of epigenetic modifications in the development of insulin resistance and the interaction between circadian rhythms and exercise training in the control of metabolism. 

Professor Zierath is a member of the Nobel Assembly, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and Academia Europaea. She is former Chairman of the Nobel Committee, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Keystone Symposia, and former President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. She is past Editor-in-Chief of Diabetologia and currently holds editorial positions with several scientific journals in the fields of endocrinology, metabolism, and interdisciplinary sciences.

Professor Zierath has received the Minkowski Prize from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the Datta Lectureship Award for outstanding achievement from the Federation of European Biochemical Society, the Knud Lundbaek Award from the Scandinavian Society for the Study of Diabetes, J.B. Wolffe Memorial Lectureship Award from the American College of Sports Medicine, The Nordic Medicine Prize for Research in Diabetes, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award and Honorary Doctorate of Science from University of Wisconsin-River Falls.