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Robert Suskind, MD

Dean Emeritus
California University of Science and Medicine

Robert M Suskind, MD is a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition and a widely recognized leader in academic pediatric nutrition and an aggressive advocate for clinical nutrition research and training. In his former role as Chairman of the Departments of Pediatrics at the University of South Alabama and Louisiana State University, and as Founding Dean of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine of Texas Tech University, he was instrumental in promoting clinical training in pediatric nutrition, inclusion of nutrition in the medical school curriculum, and the early development of inpatient nutrition support services. Professor Suskind’s own research has focused on three major areas: 1) the pathophysiology and treatment of severe acute malnutrition, 2) nutrition and immunological function, and 3) management of pediatric obesity.

Following his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania and pediatric residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Professor Suskind became the Field Director of the St. Louis University/Chiang Mai University Anemia and Malnutrition Research Center in northern Thailand. In that role he guided a large research team which conducted one of the first sets of intensive studies comparing different protein:energy ratios in the dietary management of children with marasmus and kwashiorkor. At the same time, he examined the effects of severe malnutrition and various treatment regimens on a broad range of clinical, immunological, hematological, and psycho-social outcomes. This work was summarized in a series of pioneering articles and a seminal text book on Malnutrition and the Immune Response.

Upon returning to the United States, Professor Suskind became the Associate Director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he initiated the successful MIT-Boston Children’s Hospital PhD program in Clinical Nutrition for physicians. This program provided nutrition specialty training for an impressive number of the current generation of global leaders in clinical and public health nutrition. At the same time, Professor Suskind began studying the effects of low energy, protein-sparing diets as one component in the integrated treatment of pediatric obesity. He continued this latter work after assuming responsibility for directing two different departments of pediatrics and fostering the development of strong pediatric nutrition research programs in each setting.

Professor Suskind has also worked tirelessly to assist medical institutions worldwide to develop clinical nutrition training curricula and to help develop inpatient clinical nutrition services, and he has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and other governmental agencies and as a member of the editorial boards of several pediatric and nutrition journals.

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