Marion NestleNobel Conference 46

Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, and professor of sociology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, New York City, and visiting professor of nutritional sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

Marion Nestle’s research interests include food and nutrition policy development and analysis, with a focus on dietary guidance; social, cultural, economic, and environmental influences on food choice; the politics of food safety; and the effects of food industry marketing on children’s diets and health.

Nestle received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley (B.A. in bacteriology, 1959) and served as a research assistant at Berkeley before earning her Ph.D. there in molecular biology (1968). She was a postdoctoral fellow and later joined the faculty at Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass., before accepting an appointment as a lecturer in biochemistry, biophysics, and family and community medicine at the School of Medicine of the University of California, San Francisco. In 1986 she was awarded an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from Cal Berkeley and worked for the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., as staff director for nutrition policy and senior nutrition policy adviser. She joined the Steinhardt School at New York University in 1988 and assumed her current position in 2004.

Nestle is the author of three prize-winning books: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (2002); Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism (2003); and What to Eat (2006). Recently she has been investigating pet food policies; her latest books are Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine (2008) and Feed Your Pet Right (2010).