Laboratory Director
Dr. Hannah Holscher is an associate professor of nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, and a member of the Division of Nutritional Sciences, the Institute of Genomic Biology, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, where she has been a faculty member since 2015. Before joining the faculty, she completed postdoctoral training focused on the human microbiome, as well as a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences and a B.S. in Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois. She is also a Registered Dietitian. Dr. Holscher’s laboratory uses clinical interventions and computational approaches to study the interactions of nutrition, the gastrointestinal microbiome, and health.
In addition to publishing in top nutrition journals, she also actively disseminates research findings in formats ranging from scientific presentations and webinars to podcasts, Twitter chats, blogs, and popular press articles. Dr. Holscher’s research on nutrition and the microbiome has been recognized by both local and national organizations with several awards, including the 2017 New Innovator in Food and Agricultural Research Award, 2020 National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader, and the 2021 American Society for Nutrition’s Mead Johnson Young Investigator Award. She has received grant funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, food commodity boards, and private industry. She has also served in local and national leadership roles, including chair of the Nutrition Translation (2017-2020) and Nutritional Microbiology (2020-2023) Research Interest Sections of the American Society for Nutrition. Dr. Holscher currently serves on The Journal of Nutrition editorial board and as an associate editor for Nutrition Research and Gut Microbiome.