Ronald R. Watson, PhD

Ronald R. Watson, PhD is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. He has edited 88 biomedical books, particularly in nutrition and food sciences. He published 450 papers, and presently directs several NIH funded biomedical grants relating to bioactive disease particularly immune function and cardiovascular effects including studying complementary and alternative medicines. Professor Watson was Director of a National Institutes of Health funded Alcohol Research Center for 5 years. The main goal of the Center was to understand the role of ethanol-induced immunosuppression on immune function and disease resistance in animals. He is an internationally recognized alcohol-researcher, nutritionist and immunologist. He also initiated and directed other NIH-associated work at The University of Arizona, College of Medicine. Dr. Watson has funding from companies and non-profit foundations to study bioactive foods' components in health promotion. He attended the University of Idaho, but graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a degree in Chemistry in 1966. He completed his Ph.D. degree in 1971 in Biochemistry from Michigan State University. His postdoctoral schooling was completed at the Harvard School of Public Health in Nutrition and Microbiology, including a two-year postdoctoral research experience in immunology. He is a distinguished member of several national and international nutrition, immunology, and cancer societies. He has been doing studies of dietary supplements in treatment of diabetes and related cardiovascular disease including heart failure.