The Department of Nutritional Sciences is committed to educating future leaders in nutritional sciences, and promoting basic, translational, clinical, and community research and teaching excellence. The Department consists of 24 full time faculty positions. NS faculty also have the opportunity to teach our growing graduate programs of 136 students in doctoral and master’s degrees and dietetic internship and undergraduate program of 689 students across our majors, minors, and concentrations. We offer several infrastructure and collaborative resources within the department and College of Health and Human Sciences (CHHS) and the Texas Tech System:
· The Department of Nutritional Sciences, in the CHHS, has several faculty members with strong basic, clinical/translational and community research programs focusing on obesity and co-morbid conditions such as diabetes or cancer, clinical nutrition, nutritional biochemistry, adipocyte biology, food insecurity, and community and international level interventions.
· The Department of Nutritional Sciences offers two Bachelor’s degrees, three Masters degrees (including an online MS in nutrition and dietetics and another online MS in Nutrition), and a face-to-face MS or a PhD degree. It has a strong program with a Nutrition/Dietetics undergraduate option and a Dietetic Internship/Master’s Degree Program that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND). Other undergraduate options are Pre-professional Health Careers; and Secondary Teacher Certification in Hospitality, Nutrition, and Food Science.
· Our Nutrition & Metabolic Health Initiative (NMHI), a 12,000 sq. ft. state of the art clinical research and treatment facility is focused on expanding our clinical research facilities and faculty to support our mission to become a nationally recognized clinical research institution.
· The faculty in the Department of Nutritional Sciences are involved in a number of clusters within Texas Tech University including the Obesity Research Institute.
· Nutritional Sciences faculty collaborate with the TTU International Center for Food Industry Excellence (ICFIE) to provide innovation, research, and technology transfer throughout all aspects of the food continuum to meet today's consumer needs, domestically and internationally. (http://www.depts.ttu.edu/icfie/home.php).
· The Texas Tech University Health Science Center, which is home to a medical and a nursing school offers a wide range of collaborative opportunities in health sciences.