Richard Baumgartner

Biography

Richard N. Baumgartner received a PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology from the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston in 1982. He was a Research Assistant Professor at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio from 1985 to 1990, where he worked on the Fels Longitudinal Growth Study and other research in human growth, development, body composition and cardiovascular disease risk. In 1991, he transferred to the University of New Mexico and refocused his research on body composition changes in old age and chronic disease risk, including injurious falls and disability. He served as the Principal Investigator of the "New Mexico Aging Process Study", a longitudinal cohort study of elderly men and women, from 1998-2004. He also developed a research program in nutrition, physical activity and breast cancer prognosis, known as the "Health, Eating, Activity and Lifestyle" (HEAL) Study. He served as the Associate Director of the UNM Clinical Nutrition Program from 1991-1998, and as the Director of the Aging and Genetic Epidemiology Program from 1998-2004. He was Interim Chief of the Division of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine from 2003-2004. Dr. Baumgartner joined the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health in July 2005 as a tenured Professor and Distinguished University Scholar.

Research Interests

I have over 40 years of broad-ranging research experience in the epidemiology of multiple chronic diseases and conditions with > 300 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters for an H-index ~ 85.  I am likely best known for my work on the associations of body composition, nutritional and inflammation biomarkers with diabetes, cardiometabolic diseases and cancers, as well as obesity and muscle loss (sarcopenia) in relation to frailty and disability during senescence.  A major focus of my research during the last 20 years has been breast cancer.  Formerly from New Mexico, I was PI of the New Mexico Aging Process Body Composition Study and the New Mexico site of the Health, Eating and Activity Lifestyle (HEAL) Study of breast cancer survivors.  I am currently a Co-I of the Kentucky site of the multi-centered RURAL Cohort Study.  I also collaborated in the 4-Corner's Breast Cancer Study and the Breast Cancer Research Consortium. I was a charter member of two different NIH epidemiology study sections and a An Hoc grant reviewer for over > 14 years.  I have served as the Chair of the Department of Epidemiology & Population Health since 2005.

Degrees and Certifications

Publications

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