Travis Masterson is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State University. Broadly Travis’s research is centered on understanding and preventing the development of obesity in both children and adults. He uses technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), immersive virtual reality (VR), and a variety of remote tracking and sensing technologies alongside laboratory eating paradigms and epidemiological methods to examine these questions. His graduate (Penn State) and postdoctoral (Dartmouth) research focused primarily on the effects of food marketing on brain response and food intake in children. He continues to examine the prevalence and effects of food marketing and advertising particularly on online platforms related to livestreaming.

Travis lives with his wife and 2 sons in Pennsylvania where they enjoy hiking, going to the beach, playing video games and board games, and reading books together.

Disclosures: Travis’s PhD program and his dissertation research were funded in part by a childhood obesity prevention training grant from the USDA awarded to Penn State. His postdoctoral research was funded by an NIH NIDA T-32 grant. He is currently a co-investigator on two NIH R01 grants related to food marketing, brain response, and eating behavior. He is also a co-investigator on a grant supported by the McCormick Science Institute developing educational materials encouraging the use of spices in place of fat, sugar, and salt in at home cooking. He has no other potential conflicts of interest to disclose.