Edward Horton, MD, received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1957. Following an internship in surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, he performed part of his residency in pathology at Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, and the remainder in medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. After completing his residency in 1964, Dr. Horton remained at Duke while serving in various fellowship positions in endocrinology. In 1967, he joined the staff at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, where he worked for twenty-six years primarily as Director of Endocrinology and Metabolism and then later as Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Chief of the Medical Service. In 1993, he was appointed Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Deaconess Hospital and Medical Director for the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Currently he is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center. 

His major interests include obesity and insulin resistance as they relate to diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease; the regulation of energy balance and metabolic fuel homeostasis; the regulation of glucose transport and metabolism in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue; and the effects of exercise and physical training on insulin sensitivity. Dr. Horton has over 300 publications to his credit. He is also the recipient of several awards and distinctions, including the Banting Medal for Distinguished Service awarded by the American Diabetes Association, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition's Robert H. Herman Award, the Mizuno Award and Lectureship, the International Diabetes Federation John A. Galloway Award and Lectureship, the ADA Outstanding Physician Educator Award and the Distinguished Physician Award from the Endocrine Society. He has served as Associate Editor of Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Obesity Research and the American Journal of Physiology and on the editorial boards of numerous other journals including the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Dr. Horton is past president of the American Diabetes Association and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. He has also served as Chairman of the National Diabetes Advisory Board.