She received her BS from the University of Applied Sciences at Muenster in 1998 and her MS and PhD in nutritional sciences from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. Dr. Kral's research interests focus on the study of human ingestive behavior in children and adults. In particular, she is interested in identifying individual differences in human eating behaviors and to elucidate factors that can promote increased energy intake and weight gain among obesity-prone individuals. She is currently the principal investigator on a NIH-funded study which examines eating behaviors among young siblings. She also is leading a study investigating the effects of selected environmental factors on young children's eating.