Matthew Hulver named head of Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise
Associate Professor Matthew Hulver was recently named the head of the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.
"Matt’s past experiences, his research that is relevant to the many health and exercise issues that are prevalent in our society, and his enthusiasm to lead and manage the department, will be great assets to his new role as department head and will help our college continue to be a leader in food systems and health,” said Alan Grant, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Hulver said he’s excited to be in a position to promote the department’s many successes in research, teaching, and outreach.
“Having been a member of the human nutrition, foods, and exercise faculty since 2006, I know where our strengths lie,” Hulver said. “I look forward to building on those strengths to expand the academic offerings and departmental research into an internationally recognized health program.”
Prior to becoming a faculty member at Virginia Tech, Hulver served an appointment at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., as an assistant professor of research. There he led a lab focused on understanding the role of abnormal skeletal muscle metabolism in the pathology of chronic metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Hulver is a Fralin Life Science Institute-affiliated faculty member whose research primarily seeks to understand the negative consequences of overconsumption of dietary fat on whole body and skeletal muscle metabolism. Since he has been at Virginia Tech Hulver has also collaborated on initiatives that explored metabolic changes and how those changes affect ovarian cancer.
Hulver will lead a department with an enrollment of over 900 undergraduates and 55 graduate students. Over the past seven years he has taught all human nutrition, foods, and exercise undergraduates a core course, metabolic nutrition, which demonstrates his understanding and commitment to undergraduate education. He has also served as graduate program coordinator and taught courses in the graduate program.
