Barbara J. Rolls is Professor of Nutritional Sciences and the Helen A. Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Rolls also holds positions at Penn State as Professor in Biobehavioral Health, Professor of Neural and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Medicine, and is a faculty member in the Intercollege Graduate Program in Physiology. Dr. Rolls received a B.A. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Cambridge, England. After spending her early research career at the University of Oxford, England, Dr. Rolls joined the faculty of the John Hopkins University School of Medicine as Professor of Psychiatry. In 1992, she became a faculty member at The Pennsylvania State University where she currently teaches and conducts research as the Director of Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior.
Dr. Rolls is Past-President of both the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior and The Obesity Society. She has been a member of the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH). In 1995 she was the recipient of the American Society of Nutritional Sciences Award in Human Nutrition. In 1996, she received the Pauline Schmitt Russell Distinguished Research Career Award from the College of Health & Human Development, Penn State. In 1997 she was the recipient of a MERIT award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease for her outstanding research performance. She was the 2001 recipient of the International Award for Modern Nutrition. In 2003 she was awarded Honorary Membership in the American Dietetic Association. In 2006 she was elected a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and received the Evan G. and Helen G. Pattishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award, College of Health & Human Development, Penn State. She was selected as the 2007 W.O. Atwater Lecturer at Experimental Biology (sponsored by USDA