HNRCA hosts Japanese nutrition students

The blizzard of 2003 did not put a damper on a visit to Boston by nutrition majors from Showa Women’s University in Tokyo.

The Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) hosted 28 Showa nutrition students and faculty on February 19. The group met with Megan McCrory, scientist in the Energy Metabolism Laboratory, who discussed the use of air displacement plethysmography in measuring body composition, and with Marvin Carlos and Edward Vazquez, research coordinators in the Bone Metabolism Laboratory, who demonstrated the use of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry to measure bone density. Kathleen Cappellano, nutrition information manager, provided a general overview of the HNRCA’s research efforts.

The visit was arranged through the efforts of Showa Boston, a language and culture institute in Boston’s Moss Hill section, and Johanna Dwyer, director of the Frances Stern Nutrition Center and professor at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The students also had the opportunity to visit the Frances Stern Nutrition Center, Tufts-New England Medical Center, the Health Sciences Library, School of Dental Medicine and the Friedman School of Nutrition during their visit to the Boston campus.