April 10, 2024 — Colleagues, mentors, and friends of Frank Sachs recently gathered to celebrate his nearly 50-year career in nutrition and public health. Sachs, professor emeritus of cardiovascular disease prevention and medicine at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is known for his laboratory research on human lipoprotein metabolism and his leadership in clinical trials on diet and cardiovascular disease.

His groundbreaking contributions in this field include the discovery of a new class of human lipoproteins that differentially predict coronary heart disease. The clinical trials he conducted, including his DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), POUNDS Lost, and MIND, have informed the dietary guidelines of organizations such as the American Heart Association, helping to improve diet, weight loss, and healthy My understanding of aging has deepened.

Sachs was also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he ran a hyperlipidemia clinic in the cardiovascular division.

Throughout his retirement celebration, held March 26 at HMS’s Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, speakers highlighted the impact his skills and experience have had on research in the Department of Nutrition, and his They shared an admiration for scientific rigor and a spirit of collaboration. , and supportive instruction.

Sachs’ ability to bridge the fields of clinical medicine, nutrition, biochemistry, and epidemiology is extraordinary, said Frank Hu, department chair and Frederick J. Steer Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology. He said Sachs’ unique combination of skills has uniquely advanced the field. .

Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition, said he collaborated with Sachs on a number of studies before he joined the school. When Willett became a professor in the early 1990s, he brought Sacks onto the faculty. “Probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” he said.

Dr. Andrea Vaccarelli, chair of the Department of Medicine, said Sachs “exemplifies the ideals of the School of Medicine,” recalling that he led discussions about the DASH results during his time at the School of Medicine. “We all appreciate your research, practice, and support for our students, trainees, staff, and faculty.”

Other speakers who shared their collaborative research and personal experiences with Sachs included Professor Bernard Rosner of the Department of Biostatistics; Meir Stampfer, research professor in the Department of Epidemiology and faculty member in the Department of Nutrition. and colleagues at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Sachs explains that he first became interested in eating optimally for human and planetary health in the 1970s while studying abroad at the New England Conservatory and sharing an apartment with a roommate who practiced a macrobiotic diet. Did.

Giving advice to researchers considering an academic career, he quipped: “You have to love your job because you’re going to be working a lot.” But he advised me to take a risk and give it a try. He acknowledged that the research staff played an important role in his success.

“It’s been a wonderful life,” Sachs said of his career. Although he is retiring, he said, “I’m not going to disappear.”

—amy loader

Photo: Kent Deighton, Hazel Soong