Iris Shai- Bio  https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/profile/iris-shai/  

Citations =22,054   H-index = 63  i10-index =127 (updated: Oct 2025)

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Iris Shai, RD, MPH, Ph.D., is a full Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology. She is the Dean of the School of Sustainability at Richman University, a faculty member at Ben-Gurion University (BGU), an Adjunct Professor at Harvard University, and an Honorary Professor at Leipzig University in Germany. She is actively engaged in teaching, research, and grant applications across all three institutions with formal co-appointments. Her work is frequently published in leading high-impact journals, making significant contributions to global medical and nutritional guidelines. At BGU Shai is the Chair of the International Center of Health Innovation & Nutrition, Chair of the Dr. Herman Kessel Cathedra of Epidemiology, and former 6-year BGU President's Deputy on the advancement of women in academia. In this role, Shai focused on fostering the careers of young researchers while serving as a role model for aspiring academics. As member of the Government Health Ministry Committee for Healthy Nutrition Regulations in Israel Shai propelled drastic reform in food labelling. Shai’s focuses are precision nutrition, sustainable foods, plant-based protein foodtech, green-Mediterranean diet, food systems to combat changing climate, and environmental food pollutants, addressing the effect on human health, in a multi-disciplinary approach and interplay across cardiometabolic risk, aging, cognition, epigenetics, microbiome and multi omics signature. A key attribute in Shai’s leadership is cross-border collaborations and the lion share of her breakthrough vision was achieved through leading US-European-Israeli research consortiums. Shai is regarded as a worldwide leader in performing long-term, large-scale comprehensive landmark dietary randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in accordance with drug trial standards and methodologies, using cutting- edge technologies. Following her Fulbright post-doc at Harvard, where she focused on novel biomarkers for cardiovascular disease, Shai led, with her international, multidisciplinary research team, the  2-year DIRECT trial, comparing the effects of dietary strategies on cardiometabolic risk and plaque regression. In her next trial, CASCADE , Shai addressed the 2-year effect of moderate alcohol in type 2 diabetes. In the whole-body MRI CENTRAL 18-m trial, she focused on dynamic of human-specific fat depots and fuel metabolism across dietary strategies. Afterword, Shai completed the DIRECT PLUS 18-m trial, where she offered the new concept of Green-Mediterranean sustainable diet, which explores the effect of the diet and specific plant -based/ high- polyphenols/ environmentally friendly foods on the gut-fat-brain-epigentics axis. In this trial, new horizons were explored related to Autologous Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, brain atrophy attenuation, and epigenetics. Shai directed unpreceded trials related to bioavailability of protein, iron, B12 vitamin and polyphenols of sustainable foods and their clinical effects. As a principal investigator, Shai leads a global international team from top universities. 

    Shai teaches in Harvard the course “Precision Nutrition: Dietary intervention studies and nutrition omics” and in Leipzig University, Germany  about “Effective Scientific Writing, the unwritten tips”.   Shai initiated in 2019 the “Colors of Nutrition  Sustainable Foodtech International Conference”, participated by top global public health leaders who were exposed to Israeli research and Foodtech startups. Shai is often a keynote speaker at worldwide plenary sessions and achieved several significant grants from NIH and EU.  A primary passion of Prof. Shai is to inspire the next generation leaders. Her students already hold prominent positions as faculty (one already a professor), postdoctoral and fellowships in the elite universities and hospitals in the world.   Shai contributes to The Planning and Budgeting Israeli Committee (VATAT) as a reviewer in projects related to sustainability.

In Harvard, Shai has been mentored, is closely working, and has been nominated as a faculty member for the second cadency by the 3 of the world’s most cited scientists: Walter Willett (# 1), Meir Stampfer (# 4) and Frank Hu (# 11) . Shai's h-index of 60 and nearly 20,000 citations with high Altmetric attention scores, coupled with her high proportion of top 1% publications rank her amongst the leading researchers in her field.  Shai’s findings have driven evidence-based recommendations and are cited in >60 influential medical guidelines papers .

Key publications (of top 1%) 

Citations =22,054   H-index = 63  i10-index =127 (updated: Oct 2025)

• Normal fasting plasma glucose levels and type 2 diabetes in young men. NEngl J Med 2005 (Top 1% in Medicine)
• Weight Loss with a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet. N Engl J Med 2008 (Top 1% in Medicine)
• Adolescent BMI Trajectory and Risk of Diabetes versus Coronary Disease. N Engl J Med 2011 (Top 1% in Medicine)
• Four-year follow-up after two-year dietary interventions.  N Engl J Med 2012 (Top 1% in Medicine)
• Effects of Initiating Moderate Alcohol Intake on Cardiometabolic Risk in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: A 2-Year Randomized, Controlled Trial. Ann Intern Med2015 (Top 1% in Medicine)
• Effect of distinct lifestyle interventions on mobilization of fat storage pools: The CENTRAL MRI Randomized Controlled Trial. Circulation2018 (Top 1% in Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems)
• Visceral and ectopic fat, atherosclerosis, and cardiometabolic disease: a position statement. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol2019 (Top 1% in Endocrinology & Metabolism)
• Waist circumference as a vital sign in clinical practice: a Consensus Statement from the IAS and ICCR Working Group on Visceral Obesity. Nature Reviews Endocrinology 2020 (Top 1% in Endocrinology )
• Effects of Diet-Modulated Autologous Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Weight Regain. Gastroenterology2020 (Top 1% in Gastroenterology & Hepatology)
• The effect of green Mediterranean diet on intrahepatic fat; The DIRECT PLUS randomized controlled trial. Gut 2021 (Top 1% in Gastroenterology & Hepatology)
• The gut microbiome modulates the protective association between a Mediterranean diet and cardiometabolic disease risk. Nature Med. 2021 (Top 1% in Medicine)
• Proximal aortic stiffness might be regressed by healthy lifestyle modification, mainly by the Green-Mediterranean diet; the DIRECT-PLUS randomized controlled trial. JACC 2023 (Top 1% in Cardiology & Cardiovascular Systems)
• Strain-specific gut microbial signatures in type 2 diabetes identified in a cross-cohort analysis of 8,117 metagenomes. Nature Medicine 2024 (Top 1% in Medicine)