Nutritional Sciences e-Newsletter - Spring 2012

News from around the department

Emily Riddle selected as student marshal

Emily Riddle has been selected as the college's student marshal for the Spring 2012 Commencement Exercises of the College of Health and Human Development. She, in turn, selected Rebecca Corwin, associate professor of nutritional sciences, to accompany her as faculty marshal.

ANDP / CFSA Joint National Meeting held at Penn State

The joint national meeting of the Association of Nutrition Departments and Programs (ANDP) and the Council of Food Science Administrators (CFSA) was held November 8-10, 2011 at the Nittany Lion Inn. More than 50 nutrition and food science department heads and other administrators from throughout the nation attended this conference, which was chaired by Gordon Jensen, professor and head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, and Benjy Mikel, professor and head of the Department of Food Science, Nutrition, and Health Promotion at Mississippi State.

Penn State Childhood Obesity Prevention Transdisciplinary Training Program

On February 7, 2012 the External Advisory Committee and Leadership Team met at Penn State to review the progress of this USDA/NIFA-supported training program for pre-doctoral nutrition and HDFS students. The meeting included a keynote address by leading obesity expert James Hill, professor of pediatrics and medicine and executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine - Denver.

Barry Levin and Simin Meydani are guest speakers at Nutrition Colloquia

Barry Levin, interim chair of the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience at New Jersey Medical School, spoke on October 24, 2011 about “Obesity and the Brain.” Simin Meydani, director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, spoke on November 10, 2011 about “Nutritional Modulation of Immune Function.”

Ann Skulas-Ray is recipient of Baxter Post-Doctoral Nutrition Fellowship

Ann Skulas-Ray has been awarded a two-year nutritional sciences post-doctoral fellowship sponsored by the Baxter Healthcare Corporation to conduct an innovative research project studying fish oil and inflammatory response. Her mentor is Penny Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition.

Record number of graduate student applicants

The Graduate Program in Nutrition received a record 59 student applications to enroll for fall 2012. This level of interest assures the continued high quality of the students that the department matriculates.

Barbara Rolls, Helen A. Guthrie Chair and professor of nutritional sciences, recognized for highly cited paper

Nutrition Reviews has highlighted Barbara Rolls’s paper, “Sensory-Specific Satiety,” which was published in March 1986, as the 19th-most cited article in its 70-year history of publication.

Upcoming Events

“Iron Chef PSU” cooking competition – March 24, 2012, 1:30-4:00 p.m.

The Nutrition Graduate Student Association hosts this annual competition among Penn State teams during National Nutrition Month to raise money for the local food bank. Location - Henderson Kitchen Lab and Hintz Family Student Center, Henderson Building.

Nutritional Sciences Mixer at the ASN Meeting in San Diego April 21, 2012

If you will be at the American Society for Nutrition/Experimental Biology Meetings, please join us for our annual Penn State/Cornell mixer at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in Room 500.

William Dietz, renowned obesity expert, will be the May commencement speaker for the College of Health and Human Development

William Dietz, director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control, will be visiting Penn State to serve as the commencement speaker for the College of Health and Human Development on May 5, 2012. On May 4, he will visit with nutritional sciences faculty members and students and will present a special colloquium.

A note from the Nutrition and Dietetics Alumni Society (NDAS)

Please join fellow alumni, faculty members, and students (our future alumni) at the annual alumni brunch on Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. at the Nittany Lion Inn. Gordon Jensen, professor and head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, will provide an update of happenings in the department.

In addition, there will be many opportunities to network with fellow and future alumni all weekend long. To register, please contact the Office of Alumni and College Relations in the College of Health and Human Development at 814-865-3831 or hhdevents@psu.edu.