Cornell University

Graduate SchoolGraduate School

Graduate SchoolFields of Study

Nutrition

Field Description

Students may obtain training in many aspects of nutrition and in the biological or social sciences related to nutrition. For those preparing for laboratory experimentation in nutrition, minors in biochemistry, molecular biology or genetics usually are recommended, although other minors may be chosen. Students interested in community and international nutrition have access to active programs that provide opportunity for field experience in the United States or abroad.

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree select two minor concentrations, one of which is within the field. All degree programs require a thesis or dissertation; the specific requirements are determined by each candidate's Special Committee. Graduate students are generally required to assist in teaching as part of their training.

Faculty members at Cornell who have expertise in nutrition and whose research is focused on questions in nutrition constitute the faculty in this field. The majority of the field’s faculty members are in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, but the Field also comprises faculty members in other departments within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Contact Information

Website: https://www.human.cornell.edu/dns/academics/graduate
Email: nutrition_gfr@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-2628

B36 Kinzelberg
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Data and Statistics

Field Manual

Subject and Degrees

Nutrition

Concentrations by Subject

Nutrition

  • community nutrition
  • human nutrition
  • international nutrition
  • molecular nutrition

Faculty

Laura Barre

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition
  • Research Interests: teaches integrative health sciences and assists with preparation for professional studies and health and humanities

Joeva Barrow

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: mitochondrial disease, obesity

Tolunay Beker Aydemir

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: micronutrients in health and disease

Laura Bellows

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: community nutrition
  • Research Interests: Public Health Research, Interventions, Childhood Obesity, Health Disparities

Daniel Carl Berry

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: obesity and diabetes with emphasis on adipose stem cell biology

Rachel Bezner Kerr

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: international nutrition
  • Research Interests: broad themes of sustainable agriculture, food security, health, nutrition and social inequalities, with a primary focus in southern Africa.

Richard Lane Canfield

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition
  • Research Interests: normative development, neurotoxicant exposure and child cognitive development, early nutritional influences on child cognition and affect

Patricia Ann Cassano

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: community nutrition; human nutrition; international nutrition
  • Research Interests: nutritional epidemiology of chronic disease

Martha S. Field

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: biochemistry, molecular, biology, protein-protein interactions, micronutrients, DNS repair, DNA replication, metabolism

Roger Figueroa Bautista

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: community nutrition
  • Research Interests: childhood obesity, health disparities, social / behavioral science

Julia L. Finkelstein

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition; international nutrition; molecular nutrition

John Frederick Hoddinott

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: community nutrition; international nutrition
  • Research Interests: poverty,food insecurity and undernutrition, design/evolution of interventions

Elizabeth Lauren Johnson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: host-microbe interactions, sphingolipid metabolism, maternal/infant nutrition

Sander Kersten

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: Research covers the following main themes: 1. Molecular regulation of lipid metabolism. 2. Immunometabolism, adipose tissue, and metabolic health. 3. Nutritional regulation of intestinal health.

David A Levitsky

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition
  • Research Interests: nutrition and behavior; regulation of energy balance

Marla E. Lujan

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition
  • Research Interests: nutritional regulation of fertility; endocrinology and metabolism; polycystic ovary syndrome; ultrasonography

Joseph W. McFadden

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: characterize the mechanisms of insulin resistance and fatty liver disease in dairy cattle and humans

Saurabh Mehta

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition; international nutrition
  • Research Interests: global health; human nutrition; epidemiology

Kimberly O. O'Brien

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition
  • Research Interests: human nutrition, pregnancy, mineral regulation, mass spectrometry

Angela Odoms-Young

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: community nutrition
  • Research Interests: Obesity Prevention; Food Insecurity; Health Equity; Qualitative Research Methods; Food Access; Urban Agriculture; Food Assistance Programs; Community-based Participatory Research

David Louis Pelletier

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: community nutrition; international nutrition
  • Research Interests: nutrition policies and programs in the United States and developing countries

Prabhu L. Pingali

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: international nutrition
  • Research Interests: Pingali has over three decades of experience working with some of the leading international agricultural development organizations as a research economist, development practitioner and senior manager. Professor Pingali has written 10 books and over 100 referred journal articles and book chapters on food policy, technological change, productivity growth, environmental externalities, and resource management in the developing world.

Angela C. Poole

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: microbiome, carbohydrate, metabolism

Shu-Bing Qian

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition; molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: nutrient sensing mechanism; protein homeostasis and adaptive stress response

Kathleen Maher Rasmussen

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition; international nutrition
  • Research Interests: maternal and child nutrition; pregnancy and lactation; human nutrition; international

David Ezra Sahn

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: international nutrition
  • Research Interests: health economics; food and nutrition policy; economic development; poverty and inequality

Paul Soloway

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: human nutrition; molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: mammalian genetics; epigenetics

Elad Tako

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: international nutrition; molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: My team conducts multidisciplinary research that links the research fields of food science and nutrition in order to better understand how diet and physiological status affect intestinal functionality, morphology and the microbiome. We aim to better understand how diet and physiological status affect intestinal functionality, morphology, the microbiome and overall health. Beyond research, our lab is interested in training future generations of scientists and educating the public about the value of scientific research and knowledge (both basic and applied research).

Nathaniel Vacanti

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: application of proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics methods to question in molecular nutrition

Meng Wang

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: Dr. Wang's team aims to better understand how our diet and metabolism affects the level of DNA damage that can lead to cancer and ageing, and how metabolism derived DNA damage can be harnessed into novel cancer treatments.

Yuhan Wang

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Nutrition: molecular nutrition
  • Research Interests: Her research aims at studying the brain-body interactions that govern metabolic regulation and their implications in the context of obesity and diabetes. To achieve this goal, her research utilizes a combination of molecular and functional approaches in animal models to elucidate the neural circuits involved in metabolic regulation and to understand how they become dysregulated in the presence of disease.