Vasanti Malik, ScD., is a Research Associate in the department of Nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health after completing 3 years of post-doctoral research at the same institution. She obtained a MSc. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Toronto and a dual doctorate in Nutrition and Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research focuses on evaluating dietary risk factors for obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Much of her work has evaluated the health effects of sugar sweetened beverages. She has published extensively on this topic including a number of influential review papers and meta-analyses and has spoken to international audiences both in academic and government settings. More recent research interests of Dr. Malik include studying nutritional drivers of the global obesity and diabetes epidemics in countries undergoing epidemiologic transition. Dr. Malik received the Rose Fellowship from Harvard University for conducting translational research in global health. She has also served as a teaching assistant for a number of graduate courses in the departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public and an undergraduate course in nutrition and global health at Harvard College. She has an excellent track record of publications and serves as a reviewer for a number of peer reviewed journals. Dr. Malik also sits on the steering committee of the Global Nutrition and Epidemiologic Transition (GNET) Initiative and is a trainee with the Harvard Trans disciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) Center. The ultimate goal of Dr. Malik's work is to inform future large-scale community-based interventions and policy strategies to reduce the risk of obesity and related chronic diseases nationally and internationally.