Barry M. Popkin, PhD, is the W. R. Kenan, Jr. distinguished professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
He has a PhD in economics, established the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology at UNC. He developed the concept of the Nutrition Transition, the study of the dynamic shifts in our environment and the way they affect dietary intake and physical activity patterns and trends and obesity and other nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases.
His research program focuses globally (both the US and dozens of low- and middle-income countries on understanding the shifts in stages of the transition and programs and policies to improve global population health linked with this.
Popkin’s many major awards for his global contributions include the 2016 World Obesity Federation Population Science and Public Health Award for top global scholar; the 2011 Obesity Society Mickey Stunkard Lifetime Achievement Award; the 2010 United Kingdom Rank Prize for Science; & many other global awards.
He has chaired the dissertation committees of over 60 doctoral students at the Gilling’s School of Global Public Health and has served as principal investigator on grants greater than $165 million in direct costs, many funded by the NIH.
PLOS rated him as one of the top-cited scholars in the world among 7 million scholars in 2017 (in the top 0.003% scientists in the world).
