Amy Millen, PhD

I am an Associate Professor and Graduate Director of the MS and PhD programs in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo. I have a BS in biology from Bucknell University and a PhD in nutritional sciences, with an emphasis in population health, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My primary training is in the field of nutritional epidemiology. I received post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute and at the University at Buffalo. My research focuses on understanding the role of nutrition in extending functional years of life: years lived as healthy and independently as possible. More specifically, I use epidemiologic methods to examine the influence of nutrient and food exposures on chronic diseases of aging in human populations. I have a unique set of skills from my training in both epidemiology and nutritional sciences that allows me to analyze nutrition data from large epidemiologic studies and national surveys. I have been involved in the field of ocular epidemiology for ~20 years with the majority of my work focusing on the role of diet (vitamin D, antioxidants and healthy diet patterns) in chronic eye diseases (e.g., age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, and cataract). Recently my research has expanded to include the study dietary intake and the microbiome (oral and gut) within the context of periodontal disease and age-related macular degeneration, respectively.