The American Society for Nutrition awarded Robert Russell its David Kritchevsky Career Achievement Award in Nutrition before he retired this summer from his position as director of Tufts' Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA).
The American Society for Nutrition is a professional organization of nutritionists and researchers dedicated to promoting nutritional research. Russell, who received the honor in April, is the third recipient of the Kritchevsky Award.
Russell said he was selected for a variety of reasons. "When you're recognized by your peers, it's for the research you've been involved in — your own research — and for training others and supporting other researchers," he said. "In truth, I am very grateful."
Russell, a former professor of nutrition and medicine, headed the HNRCA for seven years, serving as associate director for the 18 years before that. He has been president of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition and chair of the U.S. National Committee to the International Union of Nutritional Sciences, according to a May article in the Tufts Journal.
Russell stepped down from his position at Tufts in July and now works for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on policy issues. "I've been at Tufts since 1981, and I've been the director of the USDA HNRCA for the last seven years," he said. "It was just time to do something else."
In his current job, Russell helps the NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements decide where to put resources and perform research. "NIH is the fundamental research source and funding source for medical research in this country," he said.
It is this research that separates the USDA and the NIH. "Research is a minor part of the USDA portfolio. Their major things [have] to do with entitlement programs and farming issues," Russell said. "But [at] the NIH, which is a branch of [the Department of Health and Human Services], its business is research and medical research."
Russell believes there are important issues facing nutrition and nutrition research and says that obesity is one of the most important. "Almost any chronic disease … you can name is related to obesity," he said. "Cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, arthritis: [The] list goes on and on."
"It's the way our lifestyle has changed over the years," he said. "We're less active and much more sedentary, part due to TV and part due to the recent rise of computers and computer games. We sit in front of these machines for untold hours a day."
The HNRCA has a 30-year-old partnership with Tufts and the Agriculture Research Service in the United States Department of Agriculture. The center, located next to the Tufts Medical Center, "explore[s] the relationship between nutrition, aging and health," according to its mission statement.
The HNRCA has yet to select a new director.
