Jennifer L. Temple

Jennifer L. Temple, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Nutrition and Health Research Laboratory at the University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions. Her research focuses on the neurobiological and behavioral factors influencing ingestive behavior, particularly in adolescents and children. Key areas include caffeine's physiological effects, food reinforcement dynamics, and the relationship between food consumption and obesity. She leads studies funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), examining mechanisms underlying gender differences in caffeine sensitivity and the role of food reinforcement in weight gain.

Temple’s work bridges basic science and applied public health, emphasizing translational research to address global health challenges. She actively mentors undergraduate and graduate students through hands-on involvement in all research phases, including data collection and manuscript preparation. Her laboratory investigates topics such as the impact of food variety on eating behavior, the influence of socioeconomic factors on food choices, and the physiological responses to environmental stressors like heat exposure in occupational settings.

Current projects include a double-blind, dose-response study on chronic caffeine effects in adolescents and longitudinal analyses of food reinforcement sensitization in relation to BMI changes. Temple also explores how economic scarcity and food insecurity shape reinforcement pathology and decision-making processes, with implications for public health policy.