The Best of Times

Abstract

I came of age as a nutrition scientist during the best of times—years that spanned a rapidly changing world of food and nutrition science, politics, and policy that greatly broadened the specialty and its influence on public affairs. I followed the conventional route in academe, working my way up the academic ladder in Boston from a base first in a school of public health and later in a teaching hospital and medical school, interspersed with stints in Washington, DC. Thus I tell a tale of two cities. Those were the best of times because nutrition science and policy converged and led to important policies and programs that shaped the field for the next 50 years.