Brian Wansink

Brian Wansink (Ph.D. Stanford 1990), recent Executive Director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (2007-2009) is an internationally known author and expert on eating behavior. Dr. Wansink holds the John S. Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University where he is Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. Previously, he was a professor at Dartmouth College, the Vrije Universiteit (The Netherlands), the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, INSEAD (France), and he was a visiting scientist at the U.S. Army Research Labs in Natick, MA. He was ABC World News Person of the Week January 4, 2008. He is a Fulbright Senior Specialist in food marketing and nutrition, and in addition to writing Mindless Eating (2006), he is author of the books Marketing Nutrition (2005), Asking Questions (2004), and Consumer Panels (2002). His award-winning academic research on food has been published in the world's top marketing, medical, and nutrition journals. It has been presented, translated, reported, and featured in television documentaries on every continent but Antarctica. The research findings of he and his colleagues have also contributed to the introduction of smaller "100 calorie" packages (to prevent overeating), the use of taller glasses in some bars (to prevent the overpouring of alcohol), and the use of elaborate names and mouth-watering descriptions on some chain restaurant menus (to improve enjoyment of the food).