You are invited to join us for an engaging dialogue with Dr. Walter Willett and Brother Phap Luu on Thich Nhat Hanh, public health, nutrition and mindfulness.
Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Willett studied food science at Michigan State University, and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School before obtaining a Masters and Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Willett has focused much of his work over the last 40 years on the development and evaluation of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods starting in 1980 in the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Together, these cohorts that include nearly 300,000 men and women with repeated dietary assessments, are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of food choices.
Dr. Willett has published over 2,000 original research papers and reviews, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for heart disease, cancer, and other conditions and has written the textbook, Nutritional Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press, now in its third edition. He also has written four books for the general public. Dr. Willett is the most cited nutritionist internationally. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of many national and international awards for his research.
Ordained in 2003, Brother Pháp Lưu received Transmission of the Lamp from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh to teach in 2011. He helped start Wake Up, the Plum Village movement for young people, as well as the Happy Farm, Plum Village’s organic farming community, and has been working with Wake Up Schools since its inception in 2012 to bring mindfulness to schools. He has served as a monastic editor for a number of Thầy’s books, including Happy Teachers Change the World, Stepping Into Freedom, The Admonitions and Encouraging Words of Master Guishan, and How to Focus. Brother Pháp Lưu leads mindful backpacking retreats in nature around Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California, USA; Joshua Tree National Park; the Sierra Nevada; and on the Appalachian Trail. He is currently editing Thay’s book on Nagarjuna for publication in 2023.