Kathleen M. Rasmussen, professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University, will be the first recipient of the Excellence in Nutrition Education Award from the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) on April 2 in San Francisco at the Experimental Biology '06 meeting.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to teaching nutrition, particularly by those who show a "demonstrated current superior ability as an educator in nutrition science as evidenced through a combination of the following: acknowledged excellence in nutrition teaching or nutrition education research, and original contributions to teaching and translating new discoveries into classroom or educational materials."

"Of particular meaning to me is that I was nominated by a number of my graduate students," says Rasmussen, a past president of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences (now American Society for Nutrition) and the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation; Rasmussen also is a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees.

ASN is the professional society for researchers in nutrition. The award consists of an engraved plaque and $2,500.

Rasmussen, who received her A.B. (1970) from Brown University and master's degree (1975) and Ph.D. (1978) in nutrition at Harvard University, studies how maternal obesity relates to breastfeeding performance and infant growth in women in upstate New York and Denmark, and how various interventions to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women in Bangladesh affect infant birth weight and how long the mothers breastfeed.