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PhD Candidate
University of Toronto, Canada
Samer is a second year PhD student in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. His doctoral research examines the relationship between dietary choices aligned with the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide 2019 and cardiometabolic risk factors among Canadians using a nationally representative health data set: The Canadian Health Measures Survey. Prior to starting his PhD program, Samer worked as a Research Associate in scientific and regulatory affairs related to nutrition health claims and clinical trials in Canada. Samer obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in nutrition and dietetics from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Samer holds a B.Eng. in Food Technology from the University of Aleppo, Syria. Samer was named as the second-place winner for the National Policy Challenge 2022 by the Canadians Research Data Center – Statistics Canada. He was awarded in 2022 the George Beaton Award for Student Work in Public Health Nutrition, the Nutrition Graduate Student and Trainee Award in recognition of Excellence in the Quality of Graduate Student Research conducted in the field of Nutrition, and Nutrigraphic Award Competition Finalist by the Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS). In 2019, Samer received the Diana Tamari Sabbagh Scholars Program Award from the American University of Beirut in recognition of his master’s thesis.