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As ����Ӱ�� continues its trajectory toward Carnegie R1 classification, the role of doctoral training and research productivity has become increasingly central. Within this context, the nutrition and exercise sciences Ph.D. program — currently the only doctoral program in the College of Education and Human Sciences — is demonstrating how a focused, high-quality training model can deliver both.

In 2025, two doctoral researchers in the School of Health and Human Sciences earned major national recognition, underscoring the program’s contribution to SDSU’s growing research profile.

Working under the mentorship of professor Moul Dey, the students have collectively authored four peer-reviewed original research publications, presented their work multiple times at leading scientific conferences, and taken on lead roles in a complex randomized clinical feeding trial involving rural older adults to study diet-related changes in metabolism and underlying biological pathways with aging.

Bruna Oliveira de Vargas, from Brazil, as a second-year student in the program, earned a top award in her discipline at Nutrition 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition. She was selected as first runner-up in the Emerging Leaders in Nutrition Science Poster Competition in the Clinical Nutrition area after going through an intensive one-hour evaluation with sustained questioning by a panel of judges from leading research institutions.

The competition included 600 abstracts submitted by doctoral and postdoctoral researchers worldwide. She also has been selected as the college’s Graduate Student of the Year and will receive this honor during a banquet in April 2026.

Saba Vaezi, originally from Iran, received the 2025 Joseph F. Nelson Graduate Scholarship — a highly competitive interdisciplinary honor awarded to two students selected from a pool of 37 top graduate researchers across the university. After completing her master’s degree under Dey’s mentorship, Vaezi received offers from several larger research institutions but chose to continue her doctoral training with Dey, citing the strength of the program’s research and mentorship environment.

Vaezi’s two recent publications have gained substantial national and international visibility, with coverage in more than 70 media outlets — including PBS NewsHour and various major commercial networks — and translation into multiple languages. She is slated to present her work at Nutrition 2026, further extending the program’s national and global presence, societal impact and her own professional trajectory.

For Dey, these outcomes reflect the core elements required for sustained research impact.

“High-quality doctoral training is foundational to building a strong research enterprise,” she said. “Our goal is to develop scientists who can independently design, execute and translate complex studies.”

With a cohort of only six doctoral students currently working under the mentorship of five faculty members in the program, including Dey, the team operates in a high-engagement environment that prioritizes individualized mentorship and leadership development.

“A smaller cohort allows for depth of training,” Dey said. “Students gain experience across the full research pipeline, which prepares them to become independent investigators and future research leaders.”

“From the beginning, we were expected to think like scientists,” Vaezi said. “That expectation shaped how we approached every part of the research process.”

“Before joining this program, I had not been exposed to controlled feeding research,” Oliveira de Vargas said. “Here, I learned how clinical studies and molecular approaches can be integrated, from study design through complex data analysis, to answer critical questions in nutrition and health.”

Both researchers plan to continue their work at SDSU and pursue careers in academic research and clinical investigation, with a focus on experimental nutrition, underlying biological mechanisms and health-related outcomes.

Since 2014, students in Dey’s lab have earned more than a dozen major awards, reflecting a consistent pattern of national competitiveness and high-impact scholarship.

Programs like this contribute to SDSU’s broader research and doctoral training mission.

“Highly motivated students have tremendous potential to develop when they are trusted and given meaningful, high-stakes responsibilities,” Dey said. “Effective mentorship means creating those opportunities intentionally, working collaboratively, and providing support when they encounter challenges. The most rewarding moments in my work come from these high-stakes learning experiences.”