The NAL is happy to welcome Luotao Lin, a MS student in the Nutrition Department, to the lab. Luotao achieved his bachelor’s degree in medicine from Chongqing Medical University in China. After graduation, he worked in Chongqing Yuzhong district Health Inspection Bureau. As a health inspection officer, he took part in the evaluation of medical institutions, radioactive health surveillance, occupational and school health inspection, and infectious disease control.

After several years of work, he decided to go back to school and now is pursuing his master’s degree at UMass. Currently, in the NAL, he is examining the relationship between diet quality and body composition in pre- and post-menopausal women by analyzing NHANES data. Research has shown that menopause influences body composition, as well as diet quality. However, less is known about the differences between pre- and post- menopausal women in terms of diet quality in relation to body composition.

His research interests are in the fields of nutrition epidemiology and community nutrition. He would like to focus on the study of obesity and chronic disease prevention. He plans to become a professional nutritionist both in research and practice to improve the health status of people.