Barry M. Popkin MS, PhD

Barry M. Popkin, PhD, is the W. R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. He holds a doctorate in agricultural economics from Cornell University. He established the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology at UNC and later established and led the UNC Interdisciplinary Obesity Center, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He developed the concept of the Nutrition Transition, the study of the dynamic shifts in dietary intake and physical activity patterns and trends around obesity and other nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases (NCD). His research program focuses globally (both in the U.S. and in low- and middle-income countries) on understanding the stages of transition and the impact of programs and policies meant to improve the health of the population during their time of transition.

He has received a dozen major awards for his global contributions, including the 2016 World Obesity Society: Population Science and Public Health Award--for top global research in public health with also significant service contributions; 2015 U.K .Rank Science Prize; and The Obesity Society's Mickey Stunkard Lifetime Achievement Award. He has published more than 510 refereed journal articles, and is one of the most cited nutrition scholars in the world. He has chaired the dissertation committees of nearly students at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and has served as principal investigator on grants totaling more than many funded by the National Institutes of Health