T. Colin Campbell, PhD
Senior Science Advisor for PlantPure Communities
T. Colin Campbell, PhD has been dedicated to the science of human health for more than 60 years. His primary focus is on the association between diet and disease, particularly cancer. Although largely known for the China Study, one of the most comprehensive studies of health and nutrition ever conducted, and for his book, The China Study, recognized by The New York Times as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” – Dr. Campbell’s profound impact also includes extensive involvement in education, public policy, and laboratory research.
Dr. Campbell grew up on a dairy farm and was the first in his family to go to college, where he studied pre-veterinary medicine at Pennsylvania State University. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree, and while completing his first year at the University of Georgia veterinary school, he received a telegram from a well known professor at Cornell University, offering a scholarship and research opportunity too good to turn down. And so he completed his education at Cornell University (M.S., Ph.D.) and MIT (Research Associate) in nutrition, biochemistry and toxicology. He then spent 10 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech’s Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition before returning to Cornell in 1975 where he presently holds his Endowed Chair as the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry in the Division of Nutritional Sciences.
Dr. Campbell’s research experience includes both laboratory experiments and large-scale human studies. He has received over 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding (mostly with the NIH), served on grant review panels of multiple funding agencies, actively participated in the development of national and international nutrition policy, and authored over 300 research papers. Throughout his career, he has confronted a great deal of confusion surrounding nutrition and its effects. It is precisely this confusion that has been his main focus in recent years.
In order to synthesize the findings of his long and rewarding career, and to give back to the public whose lives are threatened by rampant misinformation and special interests, Dr. Campbell co-wrote The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health, which has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. He is also the author of the The New York Times bestseller Whole, The Low-Carb Fraud, and The Future of Nutrition: An Insider’s Look at the Science, Why We Keep Getting It Wrong, and How to Start Getting It Right. Several documentary films feature Dr. Campbell and his research, including Forks Over Knives, Eating You Alive, Food Matters, and PlantPure Nation. He continues to share evidence-based information on health and nutrition whenever given the opportunity. He has delivered hundreds of lectures around the world and he is the founder of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate in partnership with eCornell.
Dr. Campbell’s oldest son, Nelson Campbell, is the founder of the nonprofit PlantPure Communities. PPC was formed to play a key role in a grassroots strategy to share the health, environmental, and ethical benefits of plant-based nutrition. Nelson also wrote and directed the film, PlantPure Nation, which features Dr. Campbell and his research within a larger story that helps to explain how powerful economic and political forces have suppressed the message of plant-based nutrition.
—bio excerpts from nutritionstudies.org