{"id":164424,"date":"2020-09-18T08:26:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T12:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=164424"},"modified":"2020-09-18T08:27:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T12:27:56","slug":"department-nutritional-sciences-celebrates-50th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/09\/department-nutritional-sciences-celebrates-50th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Nutritional Sciences celebrates 50th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year the\u00a0<\/span>Department of Nutritional Sciences<\/span><\/a> (NUSC) in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources will<\/span> celebrate its fiftieth a<\/span>nniversary. A virtual celebration to mark the occasion will<\/span>\u00a0be held<\/span> Thursday, September 17, <\/span>from 1:00 to 2:30 PM<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>In addition to achieving this milestone, in May 2020, the department <\/span>was<\/span> ranked seventh of ninety-six<\/span>\u00a0similar programs in the nation<\/span> as reported by Academic Analytics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud of what we have done for the last fifty years, particularly our contribution to the human nutrition field,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Professor <\/span>Ji-Young Lee<\/span><\/a>, department head. \u201cTo achieve another fifty years of excellence in improving human health, the Department of Nutritional Sciences has set our first initiative, personalized <\/span>nutrition.<\/span> The faculty in my department have the expertise to carry out this initiative, and we believe personalized nutrition is the future of human nutrition. We are currently developing an entrepreneurial <\/span>master of science<\/span> program in this field, which we plan to launch in fall 2021. From this program we will produce the next generation of the human nutrition workforce.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe field of nutrition has evolved over the past fifty years,\u201d says<\/span> Professor Emeritus Hedley <\/span>Freake<\/span>. \u201cIn the late 1960s, the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health focused on under-nutrition, when the\u00a0<\/span>USDA Dietary Guidelines<\/span><\/a>\u202f were established. Now we\u2019re dealing with obesity and chronic diseases, as well as food insecurity, and focusing on personalized nutrition.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCollaborative research has become much more important,\u201d Freake points out. \u201cOur department has relationships that reach out to other schools and colleges as well as UConn Health, and that is a critical part of making progress.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The anniversary celebration will\u00a0<\/span>include<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span> presentation highlighting the department\u2019s fifty years, a<\/span>\u00a0video\u00a0<\/span>showcasing\u00a0<\/span>the first\u00a0<\/span>recipients<\/span> of the Peggy Ware Scholarship<\/a><\/span>, and comments by alumni from each of the past five decades. These include: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n