1980
Baton Rouge oilman and philanthropist C.B. "Doc" Pennington and his wife, Irene, provide $125 million to fund construction of a nutritional research center at Louisiana State University. Funds are dispersed through the Pennington Medical Foundation.

1986
Construction of the first phase of the complex begins. This initial phase includes an administrative building, inpatient and outpatient clinics, a basic laboratory wing, animal care facility, and physical plant.

1987
U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a grant for the purchase of equipment.

1988
Governor Buddy Roemer proclaims the opening of the Center, appointing Dr. William A. Pryor as Interim Director. A contract with the U.S. Department of Defense and funding from the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority allows the first two laboratories to open.

1989
George A. Bray, M.D., a specialist in obesity, diabetes, and metabolism at the University of Southern California, is hired as Executive Director.

1990
The Louisiana Legislature commits to an annual appropriation for operations.

The Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation receives donations to fund the Center’s first three endowed chairs.

Construction of the second phase of the research complex, the C.B. Pennington Jr. Conference Center, begins.

1991
U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a five-year grant to study dietary fat and human disease.

Metabolic Kitchen and Whole-Room Indirect Calorimeters built through funds provided by the Pennington Medical Foundation.

1992
Pennington Center selected by National Institutes of Health to participate in a multi-center study of the effects of diet on risk factors for heart disease with Columbia University, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Minnesota.

1993
NASA funds study of the role nutrition and metabolism may play in preventing bone and muscle loss during long-term space flight.

National Institutes of Health selects the Pennington Center to study the effect of diet on reducing or preventing high blood pressure with Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and Harvard University.

Construction of the C.B. Pennington Jr. Conference Center is completed.

1994
National Dairy Council awards funding for studies of dietary fat, genetics, and heart disease.

1995
U.S. Department of Agriculture funds multi-center nutrition intervention study of the rural Mississippi River delta regions of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. This is a joint project of the USDA, the Pennington Center, Southern University, Alcorn State University, University of Southern Mississippi, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

1997
NIH selects Pennington Center to participate in a second study of dietary patterns and blood pressure with Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and Duke University.

National Dairy Council awards a second grant for continued studies of dietary fat, genetics, and heart disease.

1999
Claude Bouchard, Ph.D., of the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, named Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, succeeding the retiring George A. Bray, M.D.

NIH awards funds to participate in a multi-center program to study improvements in cardiovascular risk factors through weight loss in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.

For the first time, total NIH grants exceed total Louisiana general fund appropriations.

2000
Louisiana Board of Regents awards five-year, $6 million grant to Drs. David York and Leslie Kozak to discover genes associated with obesity.

Five-year strategic plan announced. Vision 2005 forecasts a doubling of the Center's operational budget, faculty and staff, and construction of new buildings to accommodate the expansion.

2001
LSU Board of Supervisors provides preliminary approval for construction of a new 180,000-square-foot Basic Research Laboratory Building and 80,000-square-foot Clinical Sciences Building as part of the Vision 2005 five-year strategic plan.

The Pennington Center and its 26 partners in the NIH-funded Diabetes Prevention Program announce that at least 10 million Americans at high risk for type 2 diabetes can sharply lower their chances of getting the disease through improved diet and exercise.

2002
The National Institutes of Health awards a seven-year, $12.4 million grant to study the possible benefits of a long-term reduction of calories on aging. The grant is the largest ever by the NIH to the Pennington Center in its 14-year history.

Perhaps the Center's most significant achievement is the team of scientists and physicians that has been assembled. These researchers represent such specialties as molecular biology, genomics and proteomics, neuroanatomy, exercise physiology, biochemistry, psychology, endocrinology, biostatistics and electrophysiology.

2003
Ground is broken on a new Basic Science Laboratory building.

2004
Employment at the center reached over 500 scientists, physicians and support personnel.

The new 187,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Basic Science Laboratory Building opens.

2005
Dr. Claude Bouchard, executive director of the Center, gained approval for a five-year master plan.

The Center wins an eight million-dollar grant to establish a national center of excellence from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the effects of botanical products, or plant extracts, on human health and diseases. The mission of the center will be to evaluate conditions in humans that lead to the development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes and to determine whether plant extracts can effectively treat these conditions.

Led by Dr. Eric Ravussin, PBRC wins a grant to create a Clinical Nutrition Research Center (CNRU) to focus on pre-natal and early post-natal causes of obesity.