Granted, an Expert in His Field

Posted on Jan. 15, 2016

The author of the 2009 book The World Is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Are Fattening the Human Race, Barry Popkin is the William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition and the Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of global nutrition.

He’s also a fellow in the Carolina Population Center, an adjunct professor in the economics department and a member of UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“I can create groups and projects across campus and schools here,” he said. “I’ve worked with faculty from 50 different departments. There’s a unique culture we have at UNC of providing space for people to work together. That’s given us a leg up on lots of things in the research world. It facilitates the kind of large-scale research — team science — in ways that I could have never done at other universities.”

Grants for which he has been principal investigator have brought more than $86 million to the University. That’s not including grants of less than $100,000 and those in process now, nor any contracts or gifts to UNC from private industry, the World Bank or other international organizations — which add up to more than $11 million.