Nutrition committee

Professor John Mathers BSc Dip. Nutr PhD FAfN

Chair

John’s research is focused on understanding how eating patterns influence risks of age-related diseases. He is Professor of Human Nutrition, Director of the Human Nutrition Research Centre and Director of the Centre for Healthier Lives at Newcastle University. John is also Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition and an Honorary Fellow of The Nutrition Society.

The hidden half of plant biology has been an enduring interest throughout Malcolm’s 20-year research career at Nottingham. His team has characterised many of the regulatory signals, genes and mechanisms that control root growth, development and adaptations to their soil environment. Highlights include identifying the first transport protein described in plants for the hormone auxin, termed AUX1, which controls root angle (Bennett et al, 1996, Science), and elucidating how roots preferentially grow towards or branch towards water availability using hydrotropism (Dietrich et al, 2017, Nature Plants) and hydropatterning responses (Orosa-Puente et al, 2018, Science).

Mike is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberyswyth. His research is focused on the improvement of wheat production with respect to sustainability, grain and flour quality, and interactions between genetics, environment and crop management.

Professor Peter Gregory FRSB FCI Hort FRAgS

Peter is Emeritus Professor of Global Food Security at the University of Reading and Chair of the Board of Crops For the Future UK – a company that promotes international research into the increased use of currently underutilised crops in food systems.

Professor Sarah Gurr ARCS DIC PhD MA

Sarah holds the Chair in Food Security at Exeter University. Her interest is in plant disease, with particular emphasis on fungal infestations and in their global movement and control.

Anne Marie is Professor of Nutrigenetics, Head of the Department of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine Department, Norwich Medical School, UEA and Director of Norwich Institute of Healthy Ageing (NIHA). Anne-Marie and her team’s research programme investigates the impact of dietary components and APOE genotype on cardiovascular and cognitive health.

Professor Susan Ozanne BSc PhD FMedSci

Susan Ozanne is Professor of Developmental Endocrinology in the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science Metabolic Research Laboratories and the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. Her research is focused on defining the mechanistic basis of the relationship between suboptimal early life nutrition and risk of diseases in later life.

Professor Ann Prentice OBE PhD FafN FRSB

Ann is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow of the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. Her research is focused on lifecourse nutritional requirements for population health, with an emphasis on calcium and vitamin D, and encompasses the nutritional problems of both affluent and resource-limited societies.

John leads clinical research into obesity, diabetes and endocrinology at the University of Liverpool; his research team focuses on developing and evaluating treatments for obesity and diabetes. His clinical interests focus on caring for people with diabetes and obesity, and he leads specialist services for obesity at Aintree University Hospital.