Popkin honored with Chinese Nutrition Society award for contributions to nutrition in China

July 13, 2015

Dr. Barry Popkin

Barry Popkin, PhD, W. R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, was presented this spring with the Chinese government’s inaugural award for significant foreign contributions to nutrition.

The award, announced May 16 on the occasion of the Chinese Nutrition Society’s 70th anniversary, honored Popkin’s long-term contributions to research and policy in nutrition and noncommunicable disease in China.

Since 1987, he has organized four major national conferences in that country, collaborated with the government on selected price subsidies for bean products, and worked on sugary beverage controls, sodium reduction and many other initiatives. He has conducted training programs for senior leadership from 12 provinces and continued the country’s China Health and Nutrition Survey, a longitudinal cohort in 15 provinces.

“This is quite an honor,” said Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, professor and chair of the Gillings School’s nutrition department. “Dr. Popkin’s work has been unique in China for its breadth and impact on their leaders’ understanding of the ways environmental changes have led to shifts in diet, activity and obesity, which in turn,  have affected the Chinese people’s health. It is important to note that no other non-Chinese scientist has been honored with this award.”