The Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences consists of four innovative programs that analyze physical performance, health, and wellness through a foundation in scientific research, technical knowledge and practical skill-building. Today’s growing attentiveness to healthy lifestyle habits has generated a greater demand for careers in these fields. Our programs include:
- Athletic Training (B.S.)
- Dietetics (B.S.)
- Exercise Physiology (B.S. and B.S./M.S. Pathway)
- Exercise Physiology (M.S)
- Three majors available: Exercise Physiology, Sport Nutrition, Sports Sciences
- Exercise Physiology (Ph.D)
- Food and Nutrition (B.S.)
- Nutrition & Food Science (M.S.)
- Specialization in either: Food Science or Nutrition Science
- Human Sciences; major in Nutrition & Food Science (Ph.D)
A dietetic internship may be available to those who have completed a Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) before enrolling in our graduate program.
Click here to learn more about our faculty.
- The Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine (ISSM) is a state-of-the-art research facility with a primary focus on advancing knowledge in the realms of health, body composition, and human performance. The ISSM is the result of a collaborative partnership between the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, FSU Athletics, College of Medicine, Nike, and our esteemed founding partner, Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic. Established in 2010, the ISSM has conducted a wide array of studies, spanning from elite athletes to clinical populations. Currently, our research endeavors are structured around four distinct domains: 1) Performance Nutrition, 2) Sport Science, 3) Clinical Research, and 4) Sport Psychology.
Furthermore, the ISSM extends its services to the Tallahassee community, offering outreach testing programs that grant access to our state-of-the-art equipment and provide opportunities to consult with nutritionists and exercise physiologists. In addition, the ISSM is deeply committed to nurturing the development of FSU students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars through laboratory experiences and internship opportunities. Our overarching vision is to establish ourselves as the foremost authority in human performance, nutrition, sport sciences, and sports medicine.
- The Center for Advanced Exercise & Nutrition Research on Aging works to investigate and determine effective exercise and nutritional interventions that can prevent or slow the progression of chronic diseases and functional declines associated with aging, and turns these findings into practical recommendations for clinicians and the general public. Examples of projects conducted include the investigation of exercise and nutrition interventions for chronic conditions such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, cardiovascular diseases, sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity, cancer, gastrointestinal health, and brain degenerative diseases.
The mission of the Health Professions Learning Community is to provide unique programs, service learning initiatives, on-site academic advising, social and educational opportunities for pre-health profession students in a strong community environment.
The HPLC brings together students pursuing careers in allied health, athletic training, dentistry, medicine, physical/occupational therapy and other health-related professions in a dynamic, engaging environment. This community strives to foster the exploration of these professions through academic courses, social and educational programming, unique services and connections to campus and community resources.
Previous medical shadowing experiences include dermatology, wound care, urology, pediatrics, pediatric physical therapy, pharmacy, dietetics, veterinary medicine, internal medicine, nursing, chiropractic, emergency medicine, dentistry, surgery, optometry, OB/GYN, radiology, primary care, occupational therapy, orthodontics, cardiology, community health, medical response unit, FORCE student group, athletic training, and sports medicine observations.
Academic Offerings
Courses Offered in Fall:
- PET 1081- LLC Colloquium
- ATR 3112- First Responder Course for Emergency Medical Responders
- ATR 3802-First Responder Practicum for Emergency Medical Responders
- Professional Rescuer Certification Workshop
Courses Offered in Spring:
- ATR 3112- First Responder Course for Emergency Medical Responders
- ATR 3802-First Responder Practicum for Emergency Medical Responders
- APK 2001-Medical Terminology
Contact Information
Angela Sehgal, EDD, ATC, LAT
Program Director, Athletic Training Education and HPLC
asehgal@fsu.edu
850.644.1899
Michele Garber, MS, ATC, LAT
Assistant Department Chair
Associate Program Director, Athletic Training and HPLC
mgarber@fsu.edu
850.644.1522
Click here to learn more about living-learning communities at FSU and apply.
Tooyib Azeez
- Program: Exercise Physiology
- Research: Erectile dysfunction; vascular dysfunction in atherosclerosis.
Tooyib is a Ph.D. Candidate in Exercise Physiology. He is from Nigeria where he obtained his medical degree at the University of Lagos in 2011, a post-graduate diploma in education from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 2017, and a master’s degree in Physiology from Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto in 2019. He is currently studying erectile dysfunction and vascular dysfunction associated with atherosclerosis in the integrative neurovascular physiology lab under Dr. Justin La Favor.
Paul Baker
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Physiological & metabolic adaptations to nutritional and/or exercise interventions in humans; and high altitude.
Paul is a doctoral student in the nutrition and food sciences Ph.D. program working under Dr. Berryman. Paul graduated with his B.S. in Exercise Science and M.S. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Kentucky. During his Master’s, Paul obtained plenty of teaching and research experience working under excellent faculty. The experience encouraged him to purse a Ph.D. and make an impactful difference going forward. Paul’s long-term career goal is to work as an assistant professor, teaching and performing research.
Jingjing Cheng
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Edible film based on plant protein; improve the film properties of protein film; relationship between protein structure and function.
Jingjing is a doctoral student in the Nutrition and Food Science program working under Dr. Leqi Cui. Jingjing received her M.S. degree in Food Science from Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, China. During her master’s thesis, she worked on the factors that influence the physical and chemical stabilities of lipids in oil-in-water emulsion. After graduation, she joined Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences as an assistant researcher to work with the analysis of the volatile compounds of spicy plants. Now she is focusing on the edible film based on pea protein and trying to apply various methods to improve the mechanical, gas/moisture-barriers properties of edible film, and finding out the underlying mechanism of film formation. She feels that pursuing her Ph.D. at FUS is a precious experience and will help her to gain more skills to further pursue her academia career.
Saurabh Kadyan
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Dietary modulation of gut microbiome for improving ageing-associated cardiometabolic and neurocognitive health; influence of maternal dietary patterns on neonatal gut microbiome and metabolic health.
Saurabh is a doctoral student in the Nutrition and Food Science program working under the supervision of Dr. Ravinder Nagpal. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal (India) in the subjects of Dairy Technology and Dairy Microbiology, respectively. During his master’s thesis, he worked to develop the miniaturized, user-friendly, instrument-free and point-of-need colorimetric tests for detection of E. coli and coliforms in milk. Thereafter, he gained three years of industrial experience in India’s largest dairy cooperative “AMUL” before joining as a scientist at his alma mater in 2018. He feels that pursuing his Ph.D. from FSU will hone his academic and research skills in the field of nutrition and food science, which will be helpful for his career progression in future.
Leila Khalili
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Nutrition and chronic diseases (metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cardiovascular disease); functional foods; complementary and alternative medicine.
Leila is a doctoral student studying nutrition and food science under the mentorship of Dr. Gloria Salazar. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition Sciences and Master of Science in Health Sciences in Nutrition both from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.
Grant Laskin
- Program: Exercise Physiology
- Research: Cellular/molecular regulation of skeletal muscle mass; resistance training and nutrition interventions as nonpharmacological treatment for populations at risk of muscle atrophy; human performance optimization in athletic populations.
Grant received his B.S. and M.S. in Exercise Physiology at Southern Connecticut State University, where his major focus was athletic optimization and the study of specific neuromuscular contributions to exercise performance. Grant has dual interests in high performance populations and mitigation of atrophic and neurogenerative disease. He is passionate about translational research and enjoys recruiting both applied models with human subjects and more basic animal / cell culture models to investigate the changes from exercise and nutrition intervention at both functional and molecular levels.
Ian Gwoncheol Park
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Role of gut pathobiome signatures in host neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease; the interaction of gut microbiome with specific dietary constitutents and pre/probiotics in context to host cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative health.
Gwoncheol is a doctoral student in the Nutrition and Food Science Ph.D. Program under the supervision of Dr. Ravinder Nagpal. Gwoncheol graduated with his B.S. in Food Science and Technology in 2018 and M.S. in Food Science and Biotechnology in 2020 from Sejong University, Korea. He is eager to find out more about the underlying mechanisms that induce changes in the gut microbiota and the consequences of microbial changes. He wants to suggest therapeutic strategies through the modulation of gut microbiota for various diseases. Following his Ph.D., he will continue to grow his research network, adroitly utilize various tools that can modulate the gut microbiome and attain a comprehensive understanding of modulation through a postdoctoral research position.
Aida Rahimi Kahmini
- Program: Exercise Physiology
- Research: Cardiometabolic disease; immune signaling and metabolic pathway.
Aida is a Ph.D. student in Exercise Physiology. She is from Iran where she obtained her bachelor’s in radiology at Medical University of Kurdistan in 2016. She is currently working in Dr. Michelle Parvatiyar’s lab. The lab’s research is focused on how remodeling of proteins in the cardiac sarcolemma influences cardiac function as well as the development of cardiometabolic disease. Their research also examines immune signaling and metabolic pathways in order to have a better understanding the factors affecting the communication between adipocytes and cells in the heart.
Saiful Anuar Bin Singar
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Effects of functional food and phytonutrients on cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and cognitive health and fuction; effects of sports nutrition and supplementation on sports performance, recovery and body composition.
Saiful is a doctoral student studying nutrition science under the mentorship of Dr. Bahram Arjmandi. Saiful earned his Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences and Master of Science in Human Nutrition from Pennsylvania State University and University of Delaware, respectively. Saiful has a passion for nutrition and teaching, and he aspires to build a career within academia, hoping to make an impact on nutrition research and educate students on nutrition science and diet.
Chunya Tang
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Food safety and quality; protein immunochemistry; protein functionality.
Chunya is a doctoral student in Nutrition and Food Science under the supervision of Dr. Qinchun Rao. She graduated from Jiangnan University in 2019 and earned her master’s degree in Nutrition and Food Science in 2021 from Florida State University. In her master’s project, Chunya focused on plant protein functionality. Chunya’s career goal is to become a faculty at a research university and assist students in developing their potential future.
Yaqi Zhao
- Program: Nutrition and Food Science
- Research: Food allergen detection; protein immunochemistry; food safety and quality.
Yaqi is a doctoral student in Nutrition and Food Science program under the guidance of Dr. Qinchun Rao. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Food Quality and Safety at Jinan University (China) in 2019, she completed her master’s degree in Nutrition and Food Science at Florida State University in 2021. Yaqi worked on the development of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of finfish tropomyosin for her master’s project, which has the potential to fight seafood fraud and improve food safety. She desires to continue her research career in academia.
Xiangyu Zheng
- Program: Exercise Physiology
- Research: Acute response and chronic adaptation of the cardiovascular system to resistance training; personalized exercise prescriptions through genetic research tools; blood flow restriction training; microgravity training.
Xiangyu did his undergraduate study at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering. Then, he went to George Washington University for one semester in Environmental Engineering. After that, he changed his major and did his Master of Science degree in Applied Exercise Physiology at Springfield College, Mass.
