International Health Students, Alumni, Faculty Honored at Annual American Society of Nutrition Meeting

Published

Students, alumni, and faculty from the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health were recognized for their outstanding research and professional achievements at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nutrition: NUTRITION 2020 ONLINE LIVE. The American Society of Nutrition, the largest nutrition society in the world, hosted the free virtual event from June 1 through June 4, 2020. The awardees from the Department’s Program in Human Nutrition and Center for Human Nutrition conduct a wide range of research to help improve the diets and nutritional status of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations around the world. Congratulations to all the honorees for their outstanding achievements and commitment to advancing the field of human nutrition.

National Scientific Achievement Award

Kaitlyn Harper, doctoral student, recipient of The Gerber Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in recognition of her proposed project “Diet Quality, Dietary Patterns and Food-related Behaviors in US Adolescents Experiencing Food Insecurity.”

Finalist in Postdoctoral Research Award Program

Swetha Manohar, PhD ’20, MSPH ‘12, RD was one of five finalists among 123 early career nutrition researchers to be recognized as an outstanding early-career scientist for her study entitled, “Identifying Faltering of Growth Velocity and Associated Risk Factors Among Preschool Aged Children in Nepal.”

Emerging Leaders in Nutrition Science Finalists

Two doctoral students in the Department’s Program in Human Nutrition and a visiting doctoral student from the University of Verona have been recognized for the highest quality research from among more than 1,000 graduate and post-doctoral student abstracts submitted to NUTRITION 2020 LIVE ONLINE.

  • Farah Behbehani, doctoral student, for her study entitled, “Parental Feeding Practices Associated with Children’s Willingness to Try New Foods and Body Mass Index.”
  • Alexandra Bellows, doctoral student, for her study entitled, “Self-Identified Vegetarian Pregnant Women in India Have Better Diets Than Self-Identified Non-Vegetarian Women Because of the Intersections of Caste and Economic Status.”
  • Mulubirhan Assefa Alemayohu, visiting scholar from University of Verona, for his study entitled, “Flavonoid Content of Selected foods – a Comparison of Four International Food Composition Tables.”

Faculty Recognition

Keith P. West Jr., DrPH, was inducted into the Class of 2020 of the Fellows of the American Society of Nutrition Foundation, the “highest honor the ASN bestows, recognizing individuals for significant discoveries and distinguished careers in the field of nutrition.”1 He was also elected by the Society’s membership as Director At-Large for Global Nutrition on the Society’s Board of Directors for the period 2020 to 2023. West is the inaugural George G. Graham Professor of Infant and Child Nutrition and directs the Sight and Life Global Nutrition Research Institute. He has served as the director of the Center for Human Nutrition in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School for the past decade. 

For a complete list of awardees, visit the Nutrition Live Online 2020 website.