Janina R. Galler

Janina R. Galler MD
Other names	Janina Galler
Residence	Massachusetts, United States
Citizenship	United States
Nationality	American (born in Sweden)
Fields	Psychiatry
Institutions	Harvard Medical School
Education	Sophie Newcomb College
Alma mater	Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Thesis	(1972)
Doctoral advisor	Herbert G. Birch, MD (developmental psychologist)[1]
Other academic advisors	Herbert G. Birch, MD
Known for	45+-year longitudinal Barbados Nutrition Study
Influences	Herbert G. Birch, MD, Leon Eisenberg
Notable awards	US Senate Fellow, First Recipient of the Joseph P. Kennedy Public Policy Leadership Award in Mental Retardation, Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry, 2016 Leon Eisenberg Award in Child Psychiatry,
Children	3 daughters
Website https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/74587

Janina R. Galler, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School,^[2][3] and Psychiatrist in the Chester M. Pierce MD Division of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.^[4][5] She co-founded the 45-year Barbados Nutrition Study in the Lesser Antilles, in the Americas, with the late Sir Frank C. Ramsey. This is a unique longitudinal study that has shown how the intergenerational legacy of poverty and disadvantage result from early childhood malnutrition. A new facet of her research is its focus on epigenetics, or changes in gene expression that occur without change the structure of DNA. This new work explores potentially reversible mechanisms that explain how early malnutrition alters behavior and health over the life span and across generations.

In 1984, Galler published Nutrition and Behavior, part 3 in a 5-volume series, Human Nutrition: A Comprehensive Treatise.^[6]

She also is a researcher in the Center for the Developing Child of Harvard University^[7] and was previously a Senior Scientist at the Judge Baker Children's Center of Harvard Medical School in Boston's Longwood Medical Area.

Galler has received more than 30 years of uninterrupted research support from the National Institutes of Health.^[8] During her career, she has chaired the national Advisory Council of the Eunice K. Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Development (NICHHD) and served on the NIH Directors Advisory Council. She is also the President of the Albert EInstein College of Medicine Alumni Association. Galler has authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications and two volumes on nutrition and behavior^[9] and for 45 years has been Director of the Barbados Nutrition Study.

Education

• Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University, Chemistry and Philosophy, summa cum laude, 1967-1969
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Doctor of Medicine, 1972
• Massachusetts General Hospital, residency training in Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry (began July 1, 1972)

In addition to English, Dr. Galler speaks and writes in Castilian Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Swedish, and Yiddish.

Research

Galler's research focus is early life malnutrition and its long-term, cascading effects on mental health developments both in those children and in the societies in which they are involved. Since 1973, she has served as the Director of the 45+-year longitudinal Barbados Nutrition Study.

References