Christopher T. Sempos, Ph.D., Nutritional Epidemiologist
Christopher T. Sempos, Ph.D., joined the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the NIH in July 2008, as Program Director for the ODS Population Studies Program. The Population Studies Program is involved in research on the risks and benefits of dietary supplements using representative population data such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the National Health Interview Survey.
Dr. Sempos's research areas are in nutritional epidemiology, especially cardiovascular and alcohol epidemiology, nutrition monitoring and public health surveillance methods, dietary survey methods, and biostatistics. Since coming to ODS, his research has focused serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D. The author of more than 100 professional and technical papers, he is also the co-author of the textbook,
Statistical Methods in Epidemiology. His work has included numerous papers using data from NHANES including research on iron as a risk factor for heart disease, and national trends in diet and biomarkers of diet.
Dr. Sempos received his Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982. At the same time he earned an M.S. in Preventive Medicine-Epidemiology. He completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in Biostatistics, Nutrition, Preventive Cardiology and Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the Northwestern University Medical School, Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine in Chicago, IL, and a postdoctoral fellowship with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). From 1999-2004, he was Professor of Epidemiology and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Buffalo. He also worked in several positions within the Public Health Service from 1983-1999, most notably as Chief, Longitudinal Studies for the Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (DHANES) at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).