Purnima Menon joined IFPRI in September 2007 as a Research Fellow, a joint appointment between the Institute's Food Consumption and Nutrition Division and its New Delhi, India office. Based in New Delhi since February 2008 , Menon conducts nutrition-related program and policy research in the South Asia region, with a focus on maternal and child nutrition. She previously served as a Research Associate in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, where she co-directed a project to develop strategies for mainstreaming nutrition in health policies and programs of Bangladesh, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, and Vietnam. From 2001 to 2006, Menon coordinated a collaborative research project with IFPRI, Cornell University, and World Vision-Haiti, which studied integrated food and nutrition programs in rural Haiti. With the same collaborators, she also coordinated a study on the effectiveness of micronutrient Sprinkles in reducing anemia among young children in Haiti.

Menon holds a Ph.D. in International Nutrition from Cornell University and an M.Sc. in Nutrition from the University of Delhi.