Biography

Thomas V. Fungwe, Ph.D., CFS, FACN, is currently associate dean for Research, Institutional Assessment & Operations. He formerly served as chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Fungwe has a combined total of over 30 years of teaching at the college and university level. He had a 7-year career with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Center for Nutrition Policy as a Nutritionist and functioned as a Program Analyst, Nutrition Evidence Analyst. 

Fungwe is a recipient of a USDA Award in recognition of his service and contribution to the enhancement of the development and promotion of dietary guidance that links the best evidence-based scientific research and education, 2010 and 2015. His doctoral dissertation featured prominently in the setting of the “UL” for molybdenum by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and similar institutions in two continents. Fungwe held faculty appointments at the College of Medicine, Univ. of Tennessee HSC; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Univ. of North Texas HSC; and Wayne State University. He holds the credentials of “Certified Food Scientist” by the International Food Science Certification Commission of the Institute for Food Technologist, and a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition. Prior to joining the USDA, Fungwe was Associate Professor and interim Chair of Nutrition at Alcorn State University in Mississippi. He was associate project director to the USDA Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI), a multidisciplinary team of researchers from key universities in the region and Pennington Biomedical Research Center, involved with obesity, diabetes and hypertension prevention, using the community-based participatory research approach. Fungwe has been Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator to federal and industry funded grants.

Fungwe has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific publications in areas covering food science, inflammation, toxicology, lipid metabolism, nutrient-gene interaction, diabetes, heart disease and obesity prevention. As a professor and research, he supervised thesis and dissertations. Fungwe continuous to be active in Research, Study panels, including the National Institute of General Medical Sciences-Special Emphasis Panel, the National Science Foundation-Graduate Research Fellowship Program, USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Panelist. His current research interest is in the application of nutrigenomics in personalized/precision Nutrition in the prevention of chronic diseases. He is involved with editorial activity for several Journals including Journal of Nutrition, Nutritional Biochem, Journal of Lipids, Journal of Lipid Research, Biochim Biophysica Acta, International Journal of Nutrition and Food Science, Food Quality, Hormone and Metabolic Research, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine and is on the editorial board of Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science Journal.

He holds current memberships in several scientific organizations, including the American Society for Nutrition, Association of African Biomedical Scientists (Board Member and National Treasurer), and Institute of Food Technologists. He has been associated with include the American Heart Association (Atherosclerosis Council and Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism Council), Association for Black Cardiologist, and Association for Lipids & Atherosclerosis Research.