Dr. Combs was named Center Director, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, in January, 2002. He came to Grand Forks from Ithaca, NY, where he was a Professor of Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, having been on that faculty since 1975. At Cornell, Dr. Combs served as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Field of Nutrition of the Graduate School and as a coordinator of the Food Systems for Improved Health Program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Dr. Combs was born in Ithaca, NY, but grew up in Silver Spring, MD, the son of a Professor of Nutrition at the University of Maryland. He also attended that university, completing a B.S. degree in Zoology in 1969 whereupon he matriculated in the Graduate School at Cornell, completing a M.S. degree (Entomology) in 1971 and a Ph.D. degree (Nutrition) in 1973. That year he accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor at Auburn University, Auburn, AL, which he held through1975 when he joined the Cornell faculty.

Dr. Combs' is internationally recognized for his research in the nutritional biochemistry of trace elements and vitamins. His special interests have concerned the metabolism and physiological actions of the antioxidant nutrients selenium, vitamin E, vitamin C and factors that can affect their metabolic functions and dietary needs (e.g., vitamin A, carotenoids, iron, copper, zinc), particularly as they relate to health maintenance in and reduction of chronic disease (e.g., cancer) risks in humans and animals. He has presented more than 275 invited lectures and has published widely in this area (some 350 articles, reviews, chapters and book), including two important text/reference books, The Role of Selenium in Nutrition (Academic Press, 1986) and The Vitamins: Fundamental Aspects in Nutrition and Health (Academic Press, 1992; revised edition 1997) . At Cornell, Dr. Combs taught two graduate-level courses (The Vitamins; Mineral Nutrition) and one undergraduate course (Integrating Food Systems and Human Nutrition Needs); in previously years, he taught courses in human and animal (poultry) nutrition.

Dr. Combs’ His original research has employed several animal models (e.g., intact chicks, rats, mice and rabbits; isolated perfused rat liver preparations; isolated rat or chick hepatocytes and erythrocytes) with appropriate biochemical techniques for the study of questions relevant to human health. This basic arm of his research program has served to produce understanding as well as specific methodologies that he has employed in clinical intervention studies with humans. Dr. Combs may be best known for the work of his team in demonstrating for the first time that nutritional supplements of selenium can substantially reduce cancer risks in humans.

Dr. Combs is keenly interested in nutrition and health issues relating to national development and in the linkage of those issues to agricultural production. To that end, he has maintained since 1980 collaborations in China aimed at developing effective and sustainable food-based approaches to combating endemic selenium deficiency much of that in that country. He has served on numerous national and international scientific bodies.

As Center Director, Dr. Combs maintains an adjunct appointment as Professor, Department of Biochemisty and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota. He is also a Professor Emeritus, Cornell University. He is a member of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, the British Nutrition Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the Poultry Science Association, the International Society for Trace Element Research in Humans. He is also a member of the International Nutrition Forum of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health, the scientific research society Sigma Xi, and the honor society Phi Kappa Phi.

Dr. Combs has lived and worked in China, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Australia and Bangladesh, and has visited more some 30 countries. In addition to English, he speaks French and Mandarin.