Irv Rosenberg

		Dr. Irwin H. Rosenberg © Mark Morelli

Rosenberg named University Professor; Russell heads HNRCA

On October 1, Dr. Irwin H. Rosenberg, dean for nutrition sciences and director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA), exchanged his director's hat for one of senior scientist at the HNRCA. After serving as director for 15 years, Rosenberg now will focus his energies in several directions, including serving as University ProfessorÑan honor awarded to only three other faculty members before him.

"Dr. Rosenberg has made enormous contributions to nutrition, medicine and health through his brilliance both in the lab and in the halls of government," Senior Vice President and Provost Sol Gittleman said on the occasion of Rosenberg being named University Professor. "His leadership of the HNRCA for 15 years has been instrumental in making that institution and Tufts Nutrition pre-eminent in the world. This University Professorship recognizes a scientific and academic prominence that crosses disciplines and acknowledges the impact Dr. Rosenberg has made at Tufts and on the world that has benefited from his scholarship."

Shortly after being named University Professor, Rosenberg participated in a joint Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization panel in Rome that set new standards for energy (known as calories in the U.S.). These standards will apply to all food and nutrition programs administered by these two worldwide forces in health and nutrition.

Continuing to serve as dean, Rosenberg also will expand his teaching activities to focus on the impact of nutrition science on policy, reaching beyond the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy to other schools within the university, as well as at other institutions. Rosenberg is also the Jean Mayer Professor of Nutrition.

On the research front, Rosenberg will continue to pursue his investigation of folate metabolism, with a special emphasis on nutritional factors involved in maintenance of cognitive function and the brain. He also will continue his extensive editorial role in nutrition research and education journals, including the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter, Nutrition Reviews and Nutrition in Clinical Care. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration awarded Rosenberg a Commissioner's Special Citation for his career-long advocacy for accurate nutrition and health information.

		Dr. Robert M. Russell © Mark Morelli

Dr. Robert M. Russell has been appointed the new director of the HNRCA. A gastroenterologist who holds professorships in both the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the School of Medicine, Russell had been the HNRCA's associate director.

Supported by the Agricultural Research Service, the HNRCA is the largest research institution in the world devoted to investigating the relationship between nutrition and aging.

Russell, an expert in retinoids and carotenoids (cancer-fighting agents), is president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition and vice chair of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine.