Richard Mattes is the 2020 ARS W.O. Atwater Memorial Lecturer2020 Agricultural Research Service W.O. Atwater Memorial Lecturer
By Kim Kaplan
May 26, 2020
Richard Mattes, a distinguished professor of nutrition science at Purdue University, is being honored as the 2020 W.O. Atwater Memorial Lecturer by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
The Atwater Lecture was to be presented at Nutrition 2020, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, May 30-June 2, 2020, which will not be held this year due to the impacts of COVID-19. Instead, Mattes will present his lecture and be honored at Nutrition 2021 in Boston.
His lecture is titled "Predictive Strength of Atwater Values at the Biology: Behavior Interface."
At Purdue, Mattes also serves as the head of the Department of Public Health and Director of the Ingestive Behavior Research Center. In addition, Mattes is an adjunct associate professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and affiliated scientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center. He is also the current president of the American Society of Nutrition as well as a member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
His research focuses on hunger and satiety, food preferences, regulation of food intake in people, and the chemistry of taste and smell as they interact with hunger and satiety. He is the author of more than 280 publications.
The W.O. Atwater Memorial Lecture was established by ARS in 1968 to honor the memory of Wilbur Olin Atwater (1844-1907) and to recognize scientists who have made unique contributions toward improving the diet and nutrition of people around the world. Atwater, considered the father of modern nutrition research and education, was the U.S. Department of Agriculture's first chief of nutrition investigations. More information about the W.O. Atwater Lecture can be found at https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/lectures/index/
The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.
