Prof. Frank Hu assumes Chair of Department of Nutrition

January 5 2017-  Dear Members of the Harvard Chan School Community,

I am pleased to announce that Frank B. Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, will serve as the new Chair of the Department of Nutrition effective January 1, 2017.

Professor Hu succeeds Walter Willett, MD, MPH, DrPH, who has served as Chair of the Department since 1991. I am grateful to Professor Willett for his many contributions and exemplary leadership not only to the Department of Nutrition, but also to the School as a whole. As many of you know, Walter Willett is a renowned researcher with over 1,600 papers on nutrition and lifestyle, as well as the related risks to cancer and other chronic diseases. Dr. Willett is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the recipient of numerous awards. In his 25 years as Chair of the Department of Nutrition, he has developed the field of nutritional epidemiology, and the work of the department has made a major impact on nutritional policies and recommendations worldwide.

Frank Hu is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of obesity and cardio-metabolic diseases. Dr. Hu has focused his research on diet and lifestyle factors, gene-diet interactions, and nutrient metabolites and their effects on obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Hu co-directs the Program in Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention at the School, as well as serving as director of the Harvard Transdisciplinary Research in Energetics and Cancer Center (TREC) and the Boston Nutrition Obesity Research Center (BNORC) Epidemiology and Genetics Core. Dr. Hu served on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for the USDA/HHS, the IOM Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, and the AHA/ACC Obesity Guideline Expert Panel. He currently serves on the editorial/advisory boards of Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Diabetes Care, and Clinical Chemistry, and he is the principal author of the textbook Obesity Epidemiology published by the Oxford University Press. Dr. Hu is the recipient of the Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology by the American Diabetes Association. He has a distinguished record of service at the School as a member of several committees including, Faculty Council, the Standing Committee of Appointments, Reappointments and Promotions (SCARP), and the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP).

Frank Hu earned an MD from Tongji Medical University (now Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology) in China, a Master of Public Health and a Doctorate in Epidemiology from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He joined our faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1999, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002, and to Professor in 2008. He holds appointments in both the Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology. In addition, he is a Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and at the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Frank Hu was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Hu to this new role at the Harvard Chan School.

Best wishes,


MICHELLE A. WILLIAMS, ScD
Dean of the Faculty
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health