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Assistant Professor
Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management, University of Mississippi
Nadeeja Wijayatunga, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management at the University of Mississippi and she is the chair-elect of the Early Career Nutrition Interest (ECN) group of the American Society for Nutrition. Dr. Wijayatunga is a trained medical doctor and a nutrition scientist.
Her main research interests include biobehavioral aspects of obesity and unhealthy lean, cervical cancer and nutrigenetics, and nutrition education-related research in the areas of weight bias and ageism. After obtaining her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University, she completed a two-year postdoctoral training in the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management at Texas Tech University. Before coming to the US, she worked as a faculty in the Department of Biochemistry, in the medical school of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka, and during that time she completed her Master of Philosophy in Clinical Biochemistry from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Upon completion of her medical degree (MBBS) from the Univerisity of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, she did her residency in Medicine and Surgery. She worked as a medical officer in Intensive care and Anesthesia before joining academia.