Global Health Seminar Series

Richard Deckelbaum, M.D directs the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University and has had a long professional involvement with translation of basic research in the cell biology of lipids and issues of human nutrition to population health and disease in pediatric population. He has published extensively on the role of children’s nutrition in heart disease on basic pathways of lipid metabolism, and on factors linking nutrition to global health. He chaired two American Heart Association (AHA) New York Affiliate task forces that first identified needs for young people and subsequently developed program plans on those needs (i.e. inactivity and overweight among our youth) which are now the basis for programs in New York City.

Dr. Deckelbaum has also lead international programs sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the molecular biology of intestinal parasites and the epidemiological manifestations of infection, with particular focus on chronic diarrhea and malnutrition. Dr. Deckelbaum has served as a consultant to the Institute of Medicine on research programs studying diarrheal diseases and nutrition in the Middle East. He was the Principal Investigator on a program project studying enteric pathogens with investigators at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and at Columbia University, which was an international collaboration in infectious diseases and nutrition research (ICIDR) funded by the NIH.

Dr. Deckelbaum is the author of over 200 articles, reviews and chapters, including a text book entitled Preventive Nutrition: A Comprehensive Guide to Health Professionals now in its 3rd edition. He is the recipient of numerous research grants and serves a variety of advisory boards for nutrition and clinical research. In 1996, building upon his record of collaborative research with Ben-Gurion University, he developed the collaboration between Ben Gurion University of the Negev and Columbia University, from which developed the Medical School for International Health. Dr. Deckelbaum has served as a member of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and chaired an international March of Dimes Task Force on Nutrition and Optimal Human Development, and is part of a RAND Task Force on "Strengthening the Palestinian Health System."

Other recent international health and nutrition projects include leadership of a U.S. Agency for International Health-funded conference on the nutritional status of Palestinian populations, and health and nutritional intervention programs in Africa that are linked with the Millennium Development Goals related to improving health and nutrition on a worldwide scale.