Rate My Professor Molly Bray

Molly S. Bray serves as Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, holding the Susan T. Jastrow Human Ecology Chair for Excellence in Nutritional Sciences. She is also a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Dell Medical School. As a first-generation college graduate, Dr. Bray earned her PhD in Human and Molecular Genetics from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1998 and her MEd in Exercise Physiology from the University of Houston in 1993. She completed her postdoctoral training as a Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center from 1998 to 2000.

Prior to her current roles at UT Austin, Dr. Bray directed the Heflin Center for Genomic Sciences Genomics Core Laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Children’s Nutrition Research Center Genetics Core Laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine. Her research specializes in molecular nutrition and metabolism, focusing on the genetics of obesity and responses to treatments such as diet and exercise. She examines genetic variation, gene expression, and whole genome DNA methylation in relation to obesity traits influenced by environmental factors. Additional interests include predictors of obesity treatment success, the role of circadian clocks in metabolic gene regulation, and the effects of macronutrient intake timing on metabolism and obesity risk. Dr. Bray’s findings on energy balance, exercise adherence genetics, and energy intake timing’s impact on metabolic health have received widespread national and international media coverage. She has been honored with the Fellow of the Margaret McKean Love Chair in Nutrition, Cellular and Molecular Sciences, the Jean Andrews Centennial Faculty Fellowship in Human Nutrition, and the 2025 Distinguished Alumna award from the MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Bray has shared her expertise publicly, including in the presentation “The Next 50 Years: Your Perfect Meal and Exercise Plan” at the Texas Science Festival in 2021.