We’d like you to meet Assistant Professor of Nutritional and Planetary Health Chris Golden, MPH, PhD. Below, we ask Chris about his research working with populations in Madagascar and the South Pacific, how he got started in this field, and what he does when he’s not at work:
1. What research are you working on now?
I’m focusing on two different research themes right now. One body of work focuses on my work with the Blue Food Assessment, estimating the global contribution of aquatic foods to human nutrition. The second body of work focuses on national and sub-national case studies looking at the nutritional benefits and potential contaminant risks of aquatic food consumption.
2. What impact(s) do you hope this work will make?
I am hoping that both of these research themes will have major policy impacts on influencing dietary guidelines and mainstreaming the use of aquatic foods in areas facing malnutrition.
3. When you were first starting out, what inspired you to embark on this path of research? Do you have any tips for young investigators?
Ever since I was little, I have always been interested in the ways that natural environments have benefitted human health. This became particularly clear during my time in Madagascar, where I lived for long periods with local communities and began to understand how they viewed the environment. Now, I try to co-create research questions with local people so that research products are ensured to have a local benefit. My main tip for young investigators is to get out into the field. The ability to immerse yourself in different worldviews allows you to have unique insight into the needs of your “subject” population, so that they can become co-investigators rather than just subjects.
4. How has our Center helped further your research? How do you engage with our Center?
Through an NIEHS Center grant, I was able to team up with Elsie Sunderland and Curtis Huttenhower to try to illuminate the mechanisms of mercury intake, absorption, and excretion by harnessing a unique dataset that weaves together longitudinal dietary intake data with repeated samples of feces (to look at excretion), gut microbiome (to look at absorption), and fingernails (to look at mercury uptake). Through connecting these repeated samples with detailed exposure data, we will be able to better understand the mechanism for mercury uptake.
5. Just for fun: Outside of the academic space, what do you like to do for fun?
I love hiking and cooking. I’m looking forward to the time when I can start to have my lab group over for dinner again.