Child nutrition researcher, Professor Emeritus Osman Galal dies at 85

Osman Galal, a professor emeritus in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, died of heart failure May 23 while traveling on an airplane to Los Angeles from Cairo. He was 85.

Khalid Galal, Osman Galal’s son, said his father was enthusiastic about research in childhood nutrition and spent his life trying to make sure children from underdeveloped countries were well fed.

Before being appointed to the faculty of the Department of Community Health Sciences in 1991, Galal worked in a children’s hospital in Cairo, Egypt. In Cairo, he treated about 200 malnourished children per week, according to a written statement by Jody Heymann, the dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

In 1970, Galal received the World Health Organization Postdoctoral Award, according to the statement. Galal was also a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Nutrition and worked as a UNICEF nutrition advisor in Cairo.

From 1982 to 1987, Galal served as director of the National Nutrition Institute of the Ministry of Health in Egypt, an institution focused on nutrition research.

Mona Galal, Osman Galal’s daughter, said her father was motivated by his passion for his job and believed in empowering his students. She added he supported her and her brother in everything they did.

Goleen Samari, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Austin, who met Galal in 2008, said he was her first mentor and the reason she attended UCLA as an undergraduate.

She added he was an approachable, level-headed person who would always answer her questions about everything from research to life lessons.

Samari said he would invite his students for dinner at his house at the end of every quarter.

Samari added Galal was passionate about childhood nutrition and malnutrition in the Middle East, topics she thinks are often overlooked in research. She said this inspired her to focus her own doctoral research in the Middle East, which Galal helped her with by connecting her to researchers in the region.

“He did not let the sociopolitical context of the Middle East deter him from focusing on the issues that mattered,” Samari said.

Khalid Galal said his father’s work in the WHO and UNICEF showed that he wanted to make the world a better place for children to live in. He added his father was very generous and would go out of his way to accommodate others’ wishes.

Mona Galal said though her father retired two years ago, he was still very fond of his students.

“He was the kind of person who supported everybody,” Mona Galal said. “If he knew you had a dream, he would strive to help you fulfill it.”