Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences renamed Department of Human Health Sciences

The Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences is changing its name to the Department of Human Health Sciences, to more accurately represent the strengths and future directions of the department.

The name change also allows for the undergraduate major Nutritional and Nutraceutical Sciences to change its name to Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, to more clearly convey the breadth of the major, especially to prospective students.

With its growing focus on the role of lifestyle, Human Health Sciences better communicates that nutrition is not separate from human health, but an essential component of a healthy lifestyle, along with physical activity.

“We are excited about a departmental name change that will better reflect our vision of promoting lifestyle as a mechanism for the maintenance of health and allow us to grow further in this direction,” says departmental chair Dr. Coral Murrant.

The name change comes soon after the founding of the department’s Institute for LIFE (Lifestyle Integration of Food and Exercise), which brings together interdisciplinary researchers to provide community-driven, evidence-based programs to tackle global health challenges driven by sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition.

The department’s name has undergone several changes in the past few decades. In the late 1990s, the departments of Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences merged to become the Department of Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences. A decade later, it changed again to Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, with the department’s increased focus on lifestyle approaches to health.

The work involved in changing the department’s name will be ongoing throughout the next year.