Microbiome - Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging - Tufts ...

Laurels
Climate Change
it is a precarious time for scientific research and
higher education. With recent funding cuts, the National
Institutes of Health, the world’s largest financial supporter
of biomedical research, and the USDA, which created and
supports the HNRCA, were gravely affected. The reductions
in funding have had a direct impact on anyone who
is engaged in research at an academic institution, and the
financial climate for scientific research has been altered in
a way we have not seen in recent years.
It’s time to broaden our research landscape. At Tufts
University, there has been a concerted effort to bring together faculty and scientists
from different research areas, schools and centers to form multidisciplinary partnerships
in the pursuit of knowledge and discovery. This has created many synergies
that allow researchers from traditionally divergent areas to work together, paving
the way for broader, more impactful results while using resources more efficiently.
Scientists from all over the world recently met in Boston to share their ideas and
discuss their research at the annual conference known as Experimental Biology.
I am happy to say that the Friedman School and the HNRCA were well-represented
by faculty, scientists and graduate students. A full gamut of attendees, from
young scientists to world-renowned researchers, presented a wide array of quality
research.
It was evident to me that despite current funding woes, the drive for scientific
advancement is alive and well. The conference was just one reminder of how
important it is to create an environment that will support the next generation of
scientists, scholars and teachers and to ensure that funding opportunities are preserved
for them.
The research we do at the HNRCA focuses on healthy and active aging. With
ever-increasing health-care costs and an ever-growing number of older adults,
research around healthy aging through nutrition and physical activity is becoming
even more relevant.
As I look at the research coming out of the Friedman School and the HNRCA,
the durable and positive effects on national and global health are evident. I hope you
enjoy learning about some of our recent breakthroughs in this issue of the magazine.
simin nikbin meydani, d.v.m., ph.d.
director, jean mayer usda human nutrition research center on aging
The American Journal of Preventive
Medicine named Healthy Kids Out of
School, an initiative of CHILDOBESITY180,
as a winner of its Childhood Obesity
Challenge, an online competition for
innovative ideas to combat the childhood
obesity epidemic.
Associate Professor CHRISTINA
ECONOMOS, Ph.D., received the Science
Board Honor Award from the President’s
Council on Fitness, Sports and <strong>Nutrition</strong>.
ALICE H. LICHTENSTEIN, D.Sc., the
Gershoff Professor of <strong>Nutrition</strong> Science
and Policy and director of the HNRCA
Cardiovascular <strong>Nutrition</strong> Laboratory, was
named vice chair of the 2015 Dietary
Guidelines Advisory Committee, which also
counts Professor MIRIAM NELSON, Ph.D.,
as a committee member.
Professor MOHSEN MEYDANI, D.V.M., Ph.D.,
director of the Vascular Biology Laboratory
at HNRCA, is the 2013 recipient of the
McCormick Science Institute <strong>Research</strong>
Award of the American Society for <strong>Nutrition</strong>.
Professor MIRIAM NELSON, Ph.D., received
the 2013 Citation Award from the American
College of Sports Medicine.
Professors JACOB SELHUB, Ph.D., director
of the HNRCA Vitamin Metabolism
Laboratory, and ALLEN TAYLOR, Ph.D.,
director of the HNRCA <strong>Nutrition</strong> and Vision
<strong>Research</strong> Laboratory, were selected as fellows
of the American Society for <strong>Nutrition</strong>,
in acknowledgment of their distinguished
careers in nutrition.
Letter
HEADS UP!
Your excellent article “Climate and Calamity”
by Taylor McNeil (Winter 2013) could be the
clarion call for better disaster preparedness
that An Inconvenient Truth was for global
warming.
saurabh shah, f96
new york, n.y.
summer 2013 tufts nutrition 3