The Dannon Institute, in coordination with the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), presents this award annually to a nutrition educator who has demonstrated outstanding mentoring qualities by developing successful investigators of nutritional sciences. The Dannon Institute is committed to developing leadership and recognizing the critical role that mentorship plays.

The 2010 award recipient is Robert J. Cousins, PhD who has been a nutrition educator for close to forty years, demonstrating outstanding mentoring qualities by developing successful investigators of nutritional sciences. His long commitment as a scientist, mentor, and leadership to the society includes the mentoring of over 65 nutritional science investigators. This mentorship includes 30 Postdoctoral Associates, 23 PhD degree recipients and 14 MS degree recipients. The vast majority of these former trainees were supported by peer-reviewed research grants written by Dr. Cousins as Principal Investigator. A particularly relevant feature of his training cohort is how many are active in research, most with very successful careers. Also relevant is that this long mentorship is from just two academic institutions starting in 1971: Bob began his career at Rutgers, and after rising ahead of schedule to Associate Professor and Professor at Rutgers, he accepted an offer of an endowed professorship at the University of Florida. At present, beginning his 39th year as a scientist and mentor, he is supervising three doctoral students in Nutritional Sciences, one doctoral student in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and two Postdoctoral Associates. His trainees consistently regard Dr. Cousins as a mentor who not only maintains the highest expectations and standards, but also has concern for his trainees as family.

This award is administered by the American Society for Nutrition. The Dannon Institute provides a monetary award and inscribed plaque. The award is presented at the annual Experimental Biology meeting.

For general information, you may contact:

The American Society for Nutrition
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814-3990
Telephone: 301/634-7050
Fax: 301/634-7892

 Past Recipients