J. Thomas Brenna, Ph.D.

Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences
Cornell University

J. Thomas Brenna, Ph.D. is a professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Brenna is a member of Cornell’s graduate faculties of chemistry and chemical biology, food science and technology and geological sciences. Brenna is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Community and Preventative Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester Medical College in Rochester, N.Y. In 1980, he earned a Bachelor of Science in nutritional biochemistry from the University of Connecticut, Storrs-Mansfield, Conn. In 1985, Brenna earned a Doctor of Philosophy in chemistry from Cornell University. Brenna’s research group focuses on the study of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) nutrition in the perinatal period and its role in neural and retinal development. His studies on the efficacy of decosahexanoic acid (DHA) and related PUFA, as building blocks of the central nervous system, have helped define the mechanism by which these fats improve visual and neural function.