María Elena Díaz Sánchez is an anthropologist with a doctoral degree in health sciences and post-graduate diplomas in sociocultural anthropology and information management. Díaz is the senior researcher and head of the Nutritional Anthropology Laboratory at the Nutrition and Food Hygiene Institute in Havana, and she is a full professor at the Medical University of Havana. Her current work includes research on nutritional status, growth and development, body composition, somatotype, menopause, aging, chronic disease risk factors, obesity, eating disorders in dancers, and anthropometric reference values for the Cuban population.