Obtained medical training in Switzerland, further pediatric training in the US, a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from MIT and public health training (MPH) from Harvard, worked in Guatemala for the Institute of Nutrition of Central America as a World Health Organization medical officer in charge of primary health care and epidemiological studies, and then worked for the US National Center for Health Statistics on nutritional surveillance. Came to Cornell University in 1977 to develop a program of research and study in nutritional epidemiology that included the biological and social determinants of malnutrition in developing countries with emphasis on program development and evaluation to prevent and alleviate malnutrition in mothers and children.