Education

PhD Psychology, Rockefeller University, 1977
MA Biochemistry, Oxford University (UK), 1971

Contact

206-543-8016
adamdrew@uw.edu

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Bio

Dr. Adam Drewnowski is a world-renowned leader in the study of obesity and social disparities in diets and health. He is Professor of Epidemiology and the Director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the School of Public Health. He is also the Director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research, which addresses the environmental, social and economic aspects of the obesity epidemic. Dr. Drewnowski is a Joint Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Dr. Drewnowski obtained his MA degree in biochemistry at Balliol College, Oxford, and a Ph.D. degree in psychology at The Rockefeller University in New York. Following post-doctoral training at the University of Toronto, he returned to The Rockefeller University as Assistant Professor. He later moved to the University of Michigan, where he became Professor of Public Health, Psychology and Psychiatry and Director of the Program in Human Nutrition at the School of Public Health. He moved to Seattle in 1998.

Dr. Drewnowski is the inventor of the Nutrient Rich Foods Index, which rates individual foods based on their overall nutritional value, and the Affordable Nutrition Index, which helps consumers identify affordable healthy foods. He has conducted extensive studies on taste function and food preferences, exploring the role of fat, sugar, and salt on food preferences and food cravings. His studies on bitter taste genetics have explored consumer acceptance of bitter phytochemicals in vegetables and fruit. Dr. Drewnowski has been the leader in studies of spatial epidemiology of diets and health, using innovative GIS approaches to study the geographic distribution of food spending, diet quality and obesity rates. Dr. Drewnowski has served on the  Standing Committee to Prevent Childhood Obesity of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and is a public trustee of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), He is the author of over 200 research papers, numerous reviews and book chapters, and a frequent participant and invited speaker at scientific meetings, conferences, and symposia. Dr. Drewnowski has advised government and international agencies, foundations, and think tanks.