August 10, 2015

Dr. Linda Adair

Dr. Linda Adair

Linda S. Adair, PhD, professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, was appointed to serve as chair of the Social Sciences and Population Studies ‘A’ Study Section in the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Scientific Review. The two-year term began July 1 and will end June 30, 2017.

Committee members are selected on the basis of demonstrated competence and achievement in their disciplines, as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors.

Adair has served on the committee since 2013.

“Service on a study section also requires mature judgment and objectivity, as well as the ability to work effectively in a group,” said Richard Nakamura, PhD, director the NIH Center for Scientific Review, in announcing Adair’s appointment. “The skill and leadership offered by the chairperson determine to a significant extent the effectiveness and efficiency of the review group. I [welcome] Dr. Adair’s participation in assuring the quality of the NIH peer review process.”

Members of the Social Sciences and Population Studies ‘A’ and ‘B’ Study Section review National Institutes of Health applications related to population processes and usually involving large population samples, such as:

  • Morbidity, mortality and health over the life course, including health disparities, disability, and studies of perinatal, infant, child, adult and older adult health;
  • Reproductive health and behavior;
  • Population movement, including migration;
  • Changes in population composition, such as population aging, family structure, economic status and inequality, and health status;
  • Health and labor economics and policy, including employment, retirement and income security of population segments;
  • Population and the environment; and
  • Patterns of risk behavior, including substance use, behavior problems and obesity.

Adair, who is also a fellow at UNC’s Carolina Population Center, earned a doctorate in biological anthropology from The University of Pennsylvania. She began a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carolina Population Center in 1986, and in 1988, joined the Gillings School’s nutrition faculty. She currently serves as the director of the nutrition epidemiology division of the Department of Nutrition, which is jointly based in the UNC schools of public health and medicine.

She has written more than 160 articles for scholarly journals and has served as principal or co-principal investigator on a number of NIH grants to study obesity, women’s reproductive health and nutrition, infant feeding, and other topics.


Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu
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