Frank B. Hu

Dr. Frank B. Hu is Chair of the Department of Nutrition, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research focuses on diet/lifestyle, metabolic, and genetic determinants of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

• Education:
• MD in Preventive Medicine, Tongji Medical College, China (1988)
• MPH in Epidemiology, University of Illinois at Chicago (1993)
• PhD in Epidemiology, University of Illinois at Chicago (1996)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nutritional Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (1999)

Research Interests:
Dr. Hu’s work spans epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle, gene-environment interactions, nutritional omics, precision nutrition, and nutrition transitions in low- and middle-income countries. His group has conducted detailed analyses of dietary and lifestyle factors (e.g., sugar-sweetened beverages, coffee, red meat, fatty acids, dietary patterns) in relation to diabetes and CVD risk, using large cohort studies like the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. They integrate omics technologies to identify novel biomarkers and gene-environment interactions, advancing precision nutrition. Collaborations include the PREDIMED investigators examining Mediterranean diet interventions.

Scientific Awards:

• Elected member, National Academy of Medicine (2015)
• Kelly West Award in Diabetes Epidemiology (2010)
• American Diabetes Association
• Established Investigator Award, American Heart Association (2002)
• AHA Top Ten Research Advances (2001, 1997)
• Ancel Keys Memorial Lecturer (2018)
• Boyd Orr Trust Fund Lecturer (2020)
• Scientific Award Keynote Speaker (2022)
• Charles A. King Trust Research Fellowship (1998)
• Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Award Finalist (1998)

Grants and Funding:
Dr. Hu serves as Principal Investigator for NIH grants including Dietary Biomarkers Development Center at Harvard University (U2CDK129670) and Lifestyle Interventions, metabolites, microbiome, and diabetes risk (R01DK127601). He is a Co-Investigator in studies on sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity (R01DK125803) and infant epigenetics (R01AI148338).