Nurses' Health Study
Francine Grodstein, ScD was the Director of the NHS until 2019. She is an epidemiologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, and Professor of Internal Medicine at Rush Medical College in Chicago. Dr. Grodstein is also adjunct professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Grodstein's research focuses on healthy aging, particularly in women. She has led studies of cognitive function and incontinence in the Nurses' Health Studies.
Meir Stampfer, MD, DrPH, has been the PI of the NHS from 2011. He was a founding co-investigator of the NHS II and remains a Senior Investigator with the study. He is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research program is broadly concerned with the etiology of chronic diseases, with a particular focus on nutrition, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
Susan Hankinson, RN, ScD, was PI of the NHS from 2006-2010 and she remains a Senior Investigator with both the NHS and NHS II. She is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics & Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Hankinson’s research has focused on the roles of lifestyle factors and endogenous hormones on breast cancer risk, as well as the use of biological markers in epidemiologic studies.
Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, was PI of the NHS from 2000-2006. He is also the founding PI of the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), which enrolled children of NHS II participants. He is currently Chief of the Division of Public Health Sciences and the Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Colditz’s research is focused on the causes and prevention of chronic disease, including cancer, stroke, and diabetes, among women.
Frank Speizer, MD, is the founding Principal Investigator (PI) of the NHS. He remained in the PI role through 2000 and is currently a Senior Investigator with the Study. He is the Edward H. Kass Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Environmental Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Speizer’s major research interests include chronic disease epidemiology, with a specific focus on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancers in women, and health effects of air pollution.
Nurses' Health Study II
A. Heather Eliassen, ScD, is the PI of the NHS II. She is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Eliassen’s research focuses on the etiology of breast cancer, with an emphasis on potential preventive factors, such as medications and lifestyle factors, and biological markers, including endogenous hormone levels.
Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, is currently co-PI of the NHS II and has been the PI of the NHS II since its founding in 1989. He is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Chair of the Department of Nutrition and the Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Willett’s research primarily involves the investigation of dietary factors, using epidemiologic approaches, in the cause and prevention of chronic disease. Fundamental to this work has been the development of methods to measure dietary intake in large populations.
Nurses' Health Study 3
Jorge Chavarro, MD, ScD, has been PI of the NHS 3 since its founding in 2010. He is Associate Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Chavarro’s research focuses on investigating the role of nutritional factors in the pathogenesis of diseases affecting reproductive and hormone sensitive organs.