Jere D. Haas, the Nancy Schlegel Meinig Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, will become the director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences (DNS) at Cornell for a five-year term, effective Oct. 1.
He succeeds Cutberto Garza, M.D., professor of nutritional sciences, who steps down after two five-year terms at the helm of DNS, a joint division of the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Human Ecology. Garza has been appointed a vice provost of the university.
"We are very pleased that Professor Haas, who is known nationally and internationally for his contributions to maternal and infant health and throughout the university for outstanding teaching and service, has agreed to lead the division," said Provost Don M. Randel. "The division remains the pre-eminent institution of its kind in the world, and Professor Haas is ideally equipped for continuing its momentum."
Haas came to Cornell in 1975 as an assistant professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. He was appointed associate professor in 1980 and full professor in 1987. He was an assistant professor of anthropology for two years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst before coming to Cornell.
At Cornell, Haas holds appointments in the graduate faculties of nutrition, anthropology, Latin American studies and international development. He is also the co-director of the Program in International Nutrition and the director of the Human Biology Program.
Haas studies environmental factors that influence human growth and development. Specifically, his current research projects focus on nutrition and adaptation to extreme high altitudes (above 3,000 meters); the long-term effects of early malnutrition and effectiveness of a nutritional intervention in rural Guatemala; the usefulness of measurements taken during pregnancy to predict risk for pregnancy outcomes; and the effects of moderate iron deficiency on physical performance in women.
He now is on sabbatic collaborating with a team of Mexican nutritional scientists, led by Juan Rivera (Cornell Ph.D. '88), in the development, implementation and analysis of the Second National Nutrition Survey for Mexico. As acting director of the Division of Nutrition and Health in the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Haas is also overseeing several research projects and initiating a new project that examines the effect of moderate iron deficiency on worker productivity in rural Mexico.
"I am looking forward to the challenge of maintaining the reputation of Cornell's Division of Nutritional Sciences as the best academic nutrition program in the country. Of high priority in my tenure as director is further developing faculty, recruiting graduate students, expanding the resource base for cooperative extension activities in nutrition and integrating a new undergraduate major in human biology, health and society, as an equal partner with our already very successful nutrition major," said Haas, the author or co-author of more than 140 published journal articles and abstracts and more than two dozen book chapters.
"I feel privileged to have been given this opportunity to serve the division and the larger nutrition community as the new director," he said. "I follow two outstanding former directors, Malden Nesheim and Cutberto Garza, who along with world renowned faculty, excellent support staff and accomplished former students built the nutrition program at Cornell to its current status. I look forward to continuing that tradition."
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