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Simin Meydani Heads HNRCA
Director of the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory now leads the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
“I am very excited to have the opportunity to work closely with my colleagues to ensure continuation of high quality research with significant impact for the health of older Americans and those around the world,” says Simin Meydani. Photo: Alonso Nichols
Simin Nikbin Meydani has been named director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, and started in the position on March 16. Meydani had served as associate director of the HNRCA for the last four years.
“I look forward to working with Dr. Meydani in this expanded leadership role,” says Jamshed Bharucha, provost and senior vice president. “She is a model colleague, maintaining an impressive research program while excelling as an academic leader.”
Meydani came to Tufts in 1984, and began researching the effects of nutrients on aging, the immune system response and infection at the HNRCA and teaching at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
As senior scientist and director of the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory at the HNRCA, Meydani has received numerous grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. She has repeatedly been recognized by her peers, serving as president of the American Aging Association from 2005 to 2006 and receiving distinction awards from the American Society of Nutrition, the American College of Nutrition and the American Aging Association, as well as international organizations.
She has served and continues to serve on several governmental committees and editorial boards of scientific journals. Meydani is involved in university-wide initiatives, including the Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine Symposium and the Postdoctoral Task Force.
“Over the last 30 years, research conducted by USDA HNRCA scientists has helped shape nutrition policy in the United States and abroad,” says Meydani. “I am very excited to have the opportunity to work closely with my colleagues to ensure continuation of high quality research with significant impact for the health of older Americans and those around the world.”
Meydani succeeds Professor Emeritus Robert M. Russell, who stepped down as director of the HNRCA in July 2008. One of six human nutrition research centers in the United States supported by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, the HNRCA is charged with exploring the relationships between nutrition, aging and health.
Meydani will continue to serve as a professor at the Friedman School and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University. She holds a doctor of veterinary medicine from Tehran University and a Ph.D. in nutrition from Iowa State University.
