Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i's Murphy elected to Institute of Medicine

Suzanne P. Murphy of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa has been elected to active membership of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in the fields of health and medicine. Dr. Murphy, who has a PhD in Nutrition and is a Registered Dietician (RD), is a professor and director of the Nutrition Support Shared Resource at the Cancer Research Center of Hawai’i.

 

“This prestigious honor reflects highly on both Dr. Murphy and the quality of the UH Mānoa Cancer Center,” said Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw. “Outstanding, world-class researchers like her are crucial to building our Cancer Center into a world-class institution that leads the search for new ways to combat cancer.”

 

Dr. Murphy is internationally regarded for her nutritional research with a focus on evaluating dietary intakes. She has served on numerous boards dedicated to setting national food and nutrition policies, and is currently chairing an IOM committee to review the food assistance programs for child and adult day-care centers. She collaborates as a nutritionist on cohort and intervention studies at the Cancer Center, and is also a faculty member of UH Mānoa’s Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, and the Department of Public Health Sciences at the John A. Burns School of Medicine.

 

“Many of my most satisfying accomplishments have been achieved through my work with the Food and Nutrition Board of the IOM,” said Dr. Murphy. “Several committees that I have chaired have addressed major public health issues, including one that led to new federal regulations to improve the WIC food assistance program that serves almost seven million low-income women, infants, and children. The possibility of improving the nutrition and health of so many people is one of the best rewards of my career.”

 

The IOM, part of the National Academy of Sciences, is an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision-makers and the public. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in medicine. Worldwide, there are fewer than 2,000 members. New members are elected by current active members through a highly selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. 

 

“It is a great pleasure to welcome these distinguished and accomplished individuals to the Institute of Medicine,” said President Harvey V. Fineberg.  “Each of these new members stands out as a professional whose research, knowledge, and skills have significantly advanced health and medicine and who has served as a model for others.  The Institute of Medicine is greatly enriched by the addition of our newly elected colleagues.”

 

Added President MRC Greenwood, also an IOM member, “It would be hard to find someone as deserving of this honor as Dr. Murphy. She has made numerous and significant contributions to the field of nutrition, and her election is the highest proof that scientists can have of peer esteem.”