currently, he holds adjunct appointments in epidemiology and international health (human nutrition) at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. The focus of Dr. Appel’s career has been the conduct of clinical research pertaining to the prevention of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and renal disease, through both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches, typically nutrition-based. He has served as an investigator in a number of hypertension clinical trials, including Trials of Hypertension Prevention, Trials of Non-pharmacologic Interventions in the Elderly, PREMIER, DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), DASH-Sodium, and the African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension. Dr. Appel previously served as chair of the IOM-NAS Committee on Dietary Reference Intakes for Electrolytes and Water (2002–2004) as well as a member of the Committee on Examination of the Evolving Science for Dietary Supplements (2001–2002) and the Committee on Nutrition Services for Medicare Beneficiaries (1999–2000). He received his M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine and his M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University.

GARY K. BEAUCHAMP, Ph.D., is director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. Monell was established in 1968 as the world’s first scientific institute for multidisciplinary research on taste, smell, and chemosensory irritation, based at the University of Pennsylvania. The two institutions continue to maintain a close relationship. Dr. Beauchamp is an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology and in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as Monell’s director since 1990. His research relates to genetics of taste perception; development of human chemosensory perception and preference; genetics and behavior of individual olfactory identity; and adult human taste perception with a special interest in salt taste. Dr. Beauchamp has published more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is a director of the Ambrose Monell Foundation and the G. Ungar Vetlesen Foundation. He has served on many NIH committees and served as a member of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) Advisory Council of the NIH (2001–2005). He received his B.A. from Carleton College and his Ph.D. in biopsychology from the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago.

RONETTE R. BRIEFEL, Dr.P.H., R.D., is a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, DC. Her expertise includes nutrition monitoring, dietary intake assessment, and the evaluation of nutrition programs and policies to promote health and prevent disease. She was senior research epidemiologist and nutrition policy adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Through