Lauren O’Connor Honored with IAFNS Emerging Leader Award in Nutrition Sciences

Lauren O’Connor, Ph.D., MPH, the Nutrition and Health Program lead at the Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Evidence Center under Texas A&M AgriLife Research, has been awarded the 2026 Emerging Leader Award by the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS). This award acknowledges her significant contributions in the field of nutrition science.

The IAFNS Emerging Leader Award aims to promote excellence in nutrition sciences through research, leadership, initiative, collaboration, and communication. O’Connor will receive the award and present her research at the IAFNS annual Summer Science Symposium scheduled for June 24-25 in Washington, D.C.

In her role at the Evidence Center, O’Connor collaborates with multidisciplinary teams to assess and synthesize research, addressing complex public health and nutrition issues. She emphasized the importance of rigorous evaluation in nutrition guidance: “Nutrition guidance affects public health, policy, and consumer trust, so ensuring evidence is evaluated rigorously is critical. This award means a great deal to me and pushes me to continue pursuing my passion for elevating the quality of nutrition research that will hopefully make a significant impact on public health policies, programs, and regulations in the U.S. and around the globe.”

O’Connor’s research helps illuminate the relationships between agriculture, food systems, nutrition, and various health outcomes, including human, environmental, and economic aspects. Her expertise encompasses the design and conduct of randomized controlled feeding trials, dietary assessment methods, national nutrition surveillance, and U.S. dietary databases, along with systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Before joining AgriLife Research, she conducted research for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, focusing on the intake of red meat and ultra-processed foods concerning chronic disease prevention, including cardiometabolic diseases and cancer. O’Connor also contributed to federal systematic reviews for the Dietary Reference Intakes related to fat and carbohydrates and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025.

Currently, she leads a team of nutrition scientists and epidemiologists at the Evidence Center, conducting evidence synthesis projects to enhance the scientific foundation supporting food and nutrition policies, programs, and practices.