Skip to main content
NUTRITION 2026 Main banner

Naima Moustaid-Moussa, PhD, DFASN, FTOS, FAHA, FNAI

President, American Society for Nutrition
Texas Tech University & Texas Tech Health Sciences Center
Lubbock, Texas, United States

Prof. Naima is the Inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for One Health Innovation (IOHI) and Founding Director of the Obesity Research Institute at TTU and TTUHSC. She is a Paul W. Horn Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and One Health at the TTU School of Veterinary Medicine, and Professor of Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the TTUHSC School of Medicine. She directs Nutrigenomics, Inflammation and One Health Research (NIOR) Lab conducting basic and integrated nutrition and obesity research, with emphasis on nutrient-gene interactions, and the role of the adipose endocrine function (renin angiotensin system, RAS), and heat shock proteins in metabolic diseases. Her lab was among the first to identify RAS components in human adipose tissue and harness molecular tools to advance nutrition research. Current research focuses on effects of environmental factors (microplastics, contaminants) on inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolic and brain health and mitigation of these effects using dietary bioactive compounds. Her lab has been characterizing mechanisms by which bioactives (including fish oil, tart cherry anthocyanins, curcumin, and other polyphenols) reduce obesity-associated white fat inflammation, activate brown fat, reduce systemic, adipose- and neuro-inflammation and aging-related metabolic dysfunctions, using cells, rodents, and model organisms (C. elegans). She published over 200 peer-reviewed papers from research primarily funded by federal agencies, national and international foundations. Her h-index is 65 with 31,234 citations (Google scholar, accessed 06/08/26).

Prof Naima is a Distinguished Fellow of ASN (DFASN), Fellow of the AHA (FAHA), a Fellow of The Obesity Society (FTOS), and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (FNAI). She received several awards sponsored by ASN [2012 Outstanding Investigator award, 2015 Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Nutritional Sciences award, 2020 Korean Nutrition Society Award). She has been very dedicated to research and education, especially mentoring early career investigators and was awarded several mentoring and scholarship awards by TTU [2018 Nancy J Bell Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award, 2019 Outstanding Faculty Mentor for Undergraduate Research, 2021 Barnie E. Rushing J. Distinguished Faculty Research Award in STEM, and the 2023 Wolfe International Scholars Award]. She provided significant outreach and professional services to her discipline, including as member of several NIH study sections and as regular member of the clinical obesity and diabetes study section (CIDO/HSDO). Since 2022, she has been member of the National Academies’ Board on Agriculture & Natural Resources (BANR). Currently, she serves as the 2025-26 President of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN).

Presentation(s):

Email Naima