Charles B. Knapp Early Career Scholar Award 2023

Emily Noble, assistant professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, has consistently made advances at the leading edge of research on eating behavior, focusing on the neurobiology of food consumption, impulsivity, working memory, gut microbiota and obesity. She studies the bidirectional nature of the neural control of food intake, providing important insights into how nutritional factors affect brain functions, including impacts on specific neural circuits. In studies published in influential journals, she has addressed how diets high in saturated fat and sugar affect neurocognitive functioning, particularly learning and memory. She has also shown that eating behavior is regulated through neuropeptides transmitted through cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. Her research on obesity and cognitive dysfunction has become a crucial focal point in evolving understanding of obesity’s causes and consequences. Her creativity and communication skills have earned her important merit-based research awards at national and international meetings, and her scholarly contributions have received significant media attention.