Industry pays tribute to Dr. Hector Lopez, raise $18k in proceeds

10-Apr-2023 - Last updated on 10-Apr-2023 at 15:20 GMT

Earlier this year members of the industry gathered in San Diego at the Sports and Active Nutrition Summit to see expert presentations, panel discussions and a variety of networking opportunities. To kick off the three-day event, attendees gathered the What’s Up with Supps event to pay tribute to Dr. Hector Lopez.

Lopez, who passed away on November 25, 2022, has been described as a humble healer, larger-than-life, and ‘the smartest man in the room.’ The event allowed for friends and colleagues to grieve and share memories while raising over $18,000 in contributions toward his daughters' education fund.

“It's a celebration of life for Dr. Hector Lopez, a really amazing man that everyone in the industry knew. He was really just a pure-hearted man and just loved the industry and specifically loved sports nutrition. So today is really just celebrating his life, getting everyone together that knew him, but also spreading Hector's legacy,” said Diana Morgan, founder of What’s Up with Supps.

The event also included an announcement about the addition of the The Hector Lopez Excellence in Sports Nutrition Science Award, which has been added to the 2023 NutraIngredients-USA Awards.

“The idea behind it is to specifically shine the light on sports nutrition research in the industry that raises the bar because Hector was so central to a lot of this. It's good that we recognize his legacy and continue the conversation that Hector started in many ways,” said Stephen Daniells, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, NutraIngredients-USA. “We've got a couple of his closest collaborators as judges–Stephen Schmitz, MD and Tim Ziegenfuss, PhD. They will be judging the awards and lead us through and make sure that the bar remains very high for this so that we are really picking out the best sports nutrition research in the space.”

The deadline for the 2023 NutraIngredients-USA Awards is today.