The Center for Human Nutrition is fortunate to have Dr. Scott M. Grundy as its first director. A Texas native with an outstanding clinical and research record, Dr. Grundy has focused on human cholesterol metabolism -- production, absorption and excretion -- during his 20-year research career.

"Irresistible" is Dr. Grundy's description of the offer two years ago to direct the new Center for Human Nutrition. He credits Southwestern Medical School's national reputation for high quality and the health science center's enthusiasm for developing a comprehensive human nutrition program with drawing him to Dallas from San Diego, where he served as Chief of the Metabolic Section at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

"The medical school is one of the top in the country, with leading researchers in the areas of cholesterol lipid protein, diabetes mellitus and gastrointestinal diseases related to cholesterol metabolism. Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein and Dr. Michael S. Brown are the nation's foremost investigators into the cause of high blood cholesterol.

"The Center offered me the opportunity to expand my own research to a new phase," Dr. Grundy explains. "The basic nutrition research at the health science center was already strong. The Center for Human Nutrition brought the opportunity to expand into human research."

The research benefits were clear to Dr. Grundy, but he also saw the city of Dallas as a drawing card. "The potential for developing community support and activities was very attractive," he recalls.

Dr. Grundy's move to the Center for Human Nutrition was, in a sense, homecoming. A native of Memphis, Texas, Grundy received a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Technological College in 1955, the Master of Science and Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degrees from Baylor College of Medicine in 1960, and the Ph.D. degree from Rockefeller University in New York City in 1968.

He was chief resident at Rockefeller University Hospital from 1968 to 1970 and from 1971 to 1973 headed a new program in clinical investigation of diseases of American Indians in Phoenix, Arizona, under the direction of a branch of the National Institutes of Health. Following nine years in San Diego, Dr. Grundy was named to the Distinguished Chair in Human Nutrition at the health science center in addition to his duties as Director of the Center for Human Nutrition.

At the Center for Human Nutrition, Dr. Grundy continues his studies of cholesterol metabolism in humans, with particular emphasis on the effect of diet on the prevention and treatment of high cholesterol.