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Research Team

The CHNS is coordinated by Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Barry Popkin and Co-PI Dr. Penny Gordon-Larsen of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). The CHNS is an international collaborative project of the National Institute for Nutrition and Health (NINH), the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC), Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (BCDC), Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai (CHGC), and the UNC-CH. Dr. Bing Zhang, Deputy Director of the NINH, is the director of the Chinese group. Dr. Xiong He, Deputy Director of BCDC, Dr. Liping Liu, Deputy Director of the Central Laboratory of BCDC, lead the trace element and blood biomarker analysis group in BCDC. Dr. Wei Huang, Executive Deputy Director, leads the human genome analysis group in CHGC.

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Project manager

Dr. Shufa Du, Research Associate Professor of Nutrition, who formerly worked in China as manager of the CHNS data collection effort, manages the project.

Faculty who have been involved at varying times with the CHNS


Programmers and Staff

  • Phil Bardsley, Programmer/Analyst
  • Aimee M. Benson, Programmer/Data Support
  • Dan Blanchette, Programmer
  • William Brown, Programmer
  • Mariah Mantsun Cheng, Research Associate
  • Lynnette Cook, Data Support
  • Catherine Cross, Programmer/Analyst
  • Bonita Cumbie, Data Support
  • Frances Dancy, Administrative Director
  • Lori Dwyer, Data Support
  • Brian Frizzelle, Spatial Analyst
  • Laura Henderson, Programmer
  • Guifeng Jin, Programmer and data manager
  • Erika Jones, Data Support
  • Laura Kline, WWW Programming and Implementation
  • Peizhu Liu, Translator
  • Michelle Lown, GIS Analyst
  • Chris Mankoff, Spatial Analyst
  • Gregory Habegger Martin, Programmer/Data Support
  • Donna R Miles, Programmer
  • Amanda Monath, Programmer
  • Sharon Nikfarjam, Data Support
  • Jonathan Parkinson, Programmer
  • Debbie Poplin, Programmer
  • Pan Riggs, Data Support
  • David Robinson, WWW Programming and Implementation
  • Patricia Sikes, Data Support
  • Tom Swasey, Graphic Design
  • James Terry, Research Associate


Graduate Students

  • Samantha Attard
  • Carolina Batis
  • May Baydoun
  • Colin Bell
  • Jill Bouma
  • Feinian Chen
  • Tracy Dearth-Wesley
  • Jason Dietrich
  • Colleen Doak
  • Jim Doherty
  • Fei Dong
  • Kiyah J Duffey
  • C L Eckhardt
  • Xuguang Guo
  • Ningqu Hou
  • Paul Hutchinson
  • Jian Hu
  • Lindsay Jaacks
  • Lisa Jahns
  • Jessica C Jones-Smith
  • Soowon Kim
  • Peter Lance
  • Jin Li
  • Zhiming Li
  • Ying Liu
  • Bing Lu
  • Haijiang Ma
  • Keri Monda
  • Sahasporn Paeratakul
  • Alexis Pezzulo
  • Carmen Piernas
  • Bo Qin
  • Marie Richards
  • Kristin Sandusky
  • Tim Savage
  • Susan Short
  • Jodi Stookey
  • Lindsey Smith Taillie
  • Nguyen T Tuan
  • Carrie Waller
  • Youfa Wang
  • Asher Wolf
  • Jipan Xie
  • Claire Zizza


Postdoctoral Scholars

  • Colin Bell
  • Shufa Du

From the National Institute for Nutrition and Health

  • Dr. Ying Chang, Professor Emeritus, Nutritionist
  • Dr. Xiaoshu Chen, Professor and Director Emeritus, Nutritionist
  • Dr. Gangqiang Ding, Director, Nutritionist
  • Dr. Keyou Ge, Director Emeritus
  • Ms. Hongfei Hao, Data Manager and Programmer
  • Ms. Yuna He, Research Fellow
  • Dr. Xiaofang Jia, Research Fellow
  • Dr. Daxun Jin, Professor Emeritus, Nutritionist
  • Dr. Ying Li, Research Fellow
  • Dr. Hai Lin, Research Fellow [formly at INFS]
  • Dr. Bing Lu, Research Assosiate [formly at INFS]
  • Dr. Wei Luo, Research Assistant [formly at INFS]
  • Dr. Chang Su, Research Fellow
  • Dr. Huijun Wang, Co-Principal Investigator
  • Ms. Qing Wang, Data Manager [formly at INFS]
  • Dr. Zhihong Wang, Research Fellow
  • Mr. Wentao Yu, Research Associate
  • Dr. Fengying Zhai, Co-Principal Investigator and Deputy Director Emeritus
  • Dr. Bing Zhang, Co-Principal Investigator and Deputy Director
  • Dr. Ji Zhang, Research Fellow
  • Dr. Jiguo Zhang, Research Fellow

From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention:

  • Professor Chunming Chen (former President of the CCDC), Advisor
  • Professor Linmao Ma
  • Juhua Luo, Research Fellow [formly at CCDC]
  • Professor Shuigao Jin
  • Jianmin Wang, Research Fellow [formly at CCDC]

From the Beijing Municipal Center for Diseases Prevention and Control

  • Shaozhan Chen, Technician
  • Xiaojing Ding, Technician
  • Xiaohuan Dong, Technician
  • Wenhui Gao, Technician
  • Xiong He, Co-Principal Investigator and Deputy Director
  • Hong Li, Technician
  • Jiang Li, Technician
  • Liping Liu, Co-Principal Investigator and Deputy Director
  • Lina Luo, Technician
  • Jiachen Shi,Technician
  • Xiaowei Wang, Technician
  • Ying Wang, Technician
  • Nina Zhang, Technician
  • Tianhui Zhou, Technician
  • Haiming Zou, Technician

From the Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai

  • Minghua Fan, Technician
  • Haoran Fang, Technician
  • Wei Huang, Co-Principal Investigator and Executive Deputy Director
  • Xiaojing Miao, Data analyzer
  • Ming Shen, Technician
  • Jinxiu Shi, Co-Principal Investigator
  • Weiwei Sun, Technician
  • Haifeng Wang, Lab Manager
  • Yi Wang, Project assistant
  • Wenyun Weng, Technician
  • Lin Yang, Technician
  • Wentao Yuan, Senior Technician
  • Jing Zhang, Technician