Frank B. Hu
Primary Faculty

Frank B. Hu

Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology

Nutrition

Other Positions

Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Epidemiology

Epidemiology

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Chair, Department of Nutrition

Nutrition

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health


Overview

Dr. Frank Hu is Chair of Department of Nutrition, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Hu received his MD from Tongji Medical College in China and MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Nutritional Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Hu’s major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions; nutritional metabolomics; and nutrition transitions in low- and middle-income countries. Currently, he is Director of Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center Epidemiology and Genetics Core and Director of Dietary Biomarker Development Center at Harvard University. He has published a textbook on Obesity Epidemiology (Oxford University Press) and >1400 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 290. He served on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, the Obesity Guideline Expert Panel, American Heart Association Nutrition Committee, and the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, USDA/HHS. He has served on the editorial boards of Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Diabetes Care, and Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Hu was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.

Dr. Frank Hu’s research has focused on diet/lifestyle, metabolic, and genetic determinants of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). His major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions and risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes; nutritional metabolomics in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease; and obesity, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in low and middle-income countries. Dr. Hu’s group has conducted detailed analyses of many dietary and lifestyle factors and risk of diabetes and CVD, including sugar-sweetened beverages, coffee, red meat, saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, iron, and dietary patterns in large prospective cohort studies including the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. These findings have contributed to current public health recommendations and policies for the prevention of chronic diseases. His group has also identified novel biomarkers and gene-environment interactions in relation to risk of obesity and diabetes by integrating cutting-edge omics technologies into epidemiological studies. In addition, Dr. Hu has conducted extensive research on nutrition transition, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in low and middle-income countries.

MD, 1988
Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China

MPH, 1993
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, Illinois

PhD, 1996
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, Illinois

Research Paper Listed as American Heart Association's Top Ten Research Advances for 1997
American Heart Association

Charles A. King Trust Research Fellowship
The Medical Foundation, Boston

Elizabeth Barrett-Connor research Award Finalist in Epidemiology for Young Investigators, AHA
71st American Heart Association Scientific Sessions

Research Paper Listed as American Heart Association's Top Ten Research Advances for 2001
American Heart Association

Established Investigator Award, AHA
American Heart Association

Kelly West Award in Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Epidemiology, American Diabetes Association

Elected member, National Academy of Medicine

Ancel Keys Memorial Lecturer American Heart Association Scientific Sessions

Boyd Orr Trust Fund Lecturer, The Nutrition Society, UK-Ireland

Scientific Award Keynote Speaker, 2022 Annual Scientific Program
Chinese American Medical Society (CAMS)


Bibliography


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