Dr. Adam Drewnowski is a world-renowned leader in nutritional epidemiology and public health nutrition with a distinguished career spanning multiple decades. Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1948, he currently serves as Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and directs both the Center for Public Health Nutrition and the UW Center for Obesity Research. He earned his MA in Biochemistry from Oxford University in 1971 and completed his PhD in Psychology at The Rockefeller University in 1977. Following postdoctoral work at the University of Toronto, he held academic positions at Rockefeller University and the University of Michigan before joining the University of Washington faculty in 1998, where he has established himself as a preeminent authority in socioeconomic determinants of dietary patterns.
Dr. Drewnowski's groundbreaking research has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the complex relationships between food economics, nutrient density, and population health outcomes. He pioneered the development of the Nutrient Rich Foods Index in 2008, an influential nutrient profiling model that quantifies foods based on nutrient density per calorie or serving, which has become widely adopted in nutritional science. His seminal work demonstrated the inverse relationship between food cost and energy density, explaining why economically disadvantaged populations often face higher risks of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. With over 350 peer-reviewed publications, his Seattle Obesity Study combined health survey research with innovative spatial analysis methods to examine the multiple determinants of health and body weight across different communities, establishing critical connections between neighborhood food environments and health disparities.
Beyond his research contributions, Dr. Drewnowski has significantly influenced global policy discussions around food security, nutrition economics, and sustainable dietary patterns. He has advised governments, foundations, and private sector organizations on issues of affordable nutrient density, product reformulation, and obesity prevention strategies, bringing scientific rigor to public health interventions. His recent work extends nutrient profiling to assess environmental sustainability, calculating the environmental cost of food production per calorie and nutrient density rather than per kilogram, addressing the four interconnected domains of food system sustainability. As a respected thought leader, he continues to develop comprehensive metrics that identify foods simultaneously nutrient-dense, affordable, socially acceptable, and environmentally sustainable, providing critical frameworks for addressing nutrition challenges in an era of climate change and economic inequality.
