Dana Small, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Psychology, has been elected president of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB).
SSIB is a non-profit organization committed to advancing scientific research on food and fluid intake and its associated biological, psychological, and social processes. According to its website, SSIB provides a multidisciplinary environment for the free exchange of ideas and information, and serves as a resource for scientific expertise and education on topics related to the study of ingestive behavior.
“(SSIB) has played a pivotal role in my career and looms large in the scientific lives of my trainees,” Small said. “The cross-disciplinary focus of SSIB and the commitment to mutual respect amongst scientists of different disciplines makes SSIB stand out as a truly exceptional organization.
“As president, I am devoted to conserving these values and to building new opportunities to enhance communication and appreciation of emerging findings, not only within the membership, but also to colleagues in other fields,” she said. “The goal is to make ‘stepping out of your comfort zone’ exciting and fruitful for discovery."
Small is director of the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center at Yale. Her research focuses on understanding how sensory, metabolic, and neural signals are integrated to determine food choices and on how the dysregulation of these systems contribute to the development of obesity, diabetes, and cognitive impairment.