Committees

John is Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at the University of Nottingham. He teaches aspects of nutrition, endocrinology and metabolism on various degrees, including BSc Nutrition, BSc Animal Science, MSc Nutritional Sciences and MSc Animal Nutrition. 

John's research interests fall into three broad areas: molecular nutrition, development of body composition and regulation of energy balance.

Current and recent research projects include:

• Regulation of tissue (muscle, fat and liver) growth and metabolism, combining metabolomics, transcriptomics and systems biology.

• Effects of vitamin D on muscle cell growth, metabolism and gene expression.

• Novel regulators of energy expenditure and appetite.

• Novel Protein sources and gut digestibility.

John is an experienced author and has co-written over 80 papers relating to animal and human nutrition.

Wendy Hall, BA (Hons), MSc, PhD, RNutr, is a Professor of Nutritional Sciences within the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. She completed her PhD (2001) on amino acids and appetite regulation at the University of Surrey where she stayed for another 2 years to research vitamin E metabolism. Following 3 years as a postdoctoral researcher at University of Reading, working on cardiometabolic effects of soy isoflavones and unsaturated fatty acids, Wendy was appointed to an academic post at King’s College London in 2005.

Wendy’s research utilises clinical trials and observational study designs to investigate cardiometabolic disease risk and related conditions such as inflammatory skin disorders, as well as sleep-diet interactions and health. Ongoing projects include investigation of diet-health associations in menopause; comparisons of fatty acids effects on cardiovascular health outcomes; a potassium-rich dietary intervention to investigate effects on sleep quality, nocturnal glycaemia and blood pressure; a Mediterranean dietary intervention in people living with psoriasis; and investigations into associations between diet and psoriasis severity/incidence using the UK Biobank database. Wendy has authored >100peer-reviewed publications and was awarded the Nutrition Society’s Silver Medal in 2016.

Wendy served as NS Theme Lead for Whole Body Metabolism/Nutrition and Optimum Life Course from 2018 to 2023. She is Deputy Editor for British Journal of Nutrition and section editor for European Journal of Nutrition, and sits on the editorial board for the Nutrition Bulletin. She is a founder member of the NS Workplace Diet and Health Nutrition Society Special Interest Group.

Dr Oonagh Markey (BSc (Hons), PhD, RNutr) is a Senior Lecturer in Nutritional Sciences within the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading.

She was awarded her PhD in Nutrition and Physiology from the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2012. Shortly after the completion of her PhD, Dr Markey was appointed as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Reading’s Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition (2012-2016). On completion of her post-doctoral training, she took up her first independent research position as Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow at Loughborough University for 5 years. She has been a Registered Nutritionist (Nutrition Science) with the Association for Nutrition since 2014.

Dr Markey's research focuses primarily on dietary strategies for promotion of cardiometabolic health across the lifecourse, with emphasis on vascular function, lipid metabolism, and inflammation. She has conducted human dietary intervention studies (from acute, single meal investigations to longer-term dietary manipulation) in apparently healthy and ‘at risk’ populations. Her research programme aims to provide scientific evidence relevant to public policy for cardiovascular disease prevention and the food industry.

Dr Christian Reynolds is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London; and is the Senior Tutor for Research at the Centre for Food Policy.

Dr. Emma Feeney is a Lecturer / Assistant Professor in UCD’s Institute of Food and Health, where she co-ordinates modules in Human eating behaviour, Food Ingredients, and Sensory science, and was recently nominated for a Teaching and Learning Award at UCD in recognition of her teaching practice.

With a background in Genetics, Human Nutrition, and Sensory Science, Emma’s research interests and publications span a range of aspects including sensory evaluation, taste and appetite measurement, nutritional intake assessment, dairy food consumption, sodium reduction, food bioactives, and food structure.  She has overseen human intervention studies in a number of clinical and research settings, and has experience in dietary assessment of both children and adults, presenting her research at numerous national and international conferences.

In addition to her teaching and research commitments, Emma is an Associate Editor at BMC Nutrition, and a First Editor at the British Journal of Nutrition.  

Dr Alexandra Mavroeidi, is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Activity for Health. She has worked in the field of nutrition, exercise/sedentary behaviour, and bone health for the past 22 years. She had been involved in several studies looking at the relative contributions of sunlight, diet, and physical activity on vitamin D status in women living in the north of the UK.

She became a state registered dietitian in 2000 and moved to Aberdeen the following year to undertake her MSc in Sports Nutrition. In 2002, she joined the Osteoporosis Research Unit and carried out her PhD looking at the effect of habitual physical activity on the bone mass of older postmenopausal women. She stayed in Aberdeen as a Lecturer in Exercise/Human Physiology at the University of Aberdeen until 2015.

In 2015 she relocated to Glasgow due to family circumstances, where she undertook a 1-year lecturing position with the University of Glasgow as the level 3 BSc (Hons) Physiology co-ordinator. In 2016 she joined the Ageing Well Research Group at the Glasgow Caledonian University as a Research Fellow.

In 2018 she joined the Physical Activity for Health Group at Strathclyde University, as a Senior Lecturer. She is an active member of several professional societies including the Royal Osteoporosis Society, American Society of Bone and Mineral Research and American College of Sports Medicine. She was part of the scientific panels reviewing the vitamin D clinical guidelines on behalf of the Royal Osteoporosis Society (2019), and updated the current CMO’s UK Physical Activity Guidelines for Older Adults (2019). She has been a committee member of the Scottish Section of the Nutrition Society since 2017, and as Secretary since 2022.

In 2023, Alex moved back to Glasgow Caledonian University to assume the role of Head of Department for Occupational Health and Nutrition & Dietetics. 

Tom Hill is Professor of Nutrition at Newcastle University. His research and teaching specialisms fall under four broad areas: nutrition in very-old age, micronutrients and health, food and health and biofortification strategies. Ongoing RCUK funded projects include:

• Diet and health in 85+ year-olds (The Newcastle 85+ Cohort Study)
• Egg enrichment with vitamin D (The Sunshine Eggs projects)
• The nutritional profile of vertically grown crops (The Infarm2.x project)
• Nutrition and healthy brain ageing (The NuBrain project)

Tom served on the editorial board of the British Journal of Nutrition and the Journal of Nutritional Sciences from 2012-2018 and is currently an editorial board member for Nutrition Research Reviews.  He was membership secretary of the Nutrition Society, Irish section from 2006-2011 and was the local organiser of the Societies’ 70th anniversary meeting, jointly hosted with the American Society for Nutrition which was held in Cork in 2011. He is one of four editors of the Nutrition Society, Introduction to Human Nutrition third edition textbook. 

Dr Lisa Coneyworth (BSc (Hons), PhD, RNutr) is an Associate Professor within the Division of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Nottingham, UK. 

After completing her BSc (Hons) Food and Human Nutrition and PhD in Molecular Nutrition at Newcastle University, Lisa completed a period of post-doctoral research at the University of Nottingham before joining the Division of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics as a lecturer in 2012.  Lisa is an Association for Nutrition Registered Nutritionist - Nutrition Science (RNutr).

Lisa is Course Director for the MSc Nutritional Science programme at the University of Nottingham and teaches across the suite of nutrition related undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes offered. She is the Deputy Director of Education and Student Experience in the School of Biosciences and Faculty of Science Curriculum Transformation Programme Lead.

Lisa's research focuses on micronutrient nutrition, sustainable diets and food insecurity.  More specifically the prevalence, causes and impact of micronutrient deficiencies on individuals following restricted diets either due to choice such as veganism, vegetarianism or sustainability concerns, or due to imposed dietary restrictions as a consequence of food insecurity. 

Mary Ward graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BSc Hons in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. She is a registered dietitian and a Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), within the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster University, Northern Ireland where she has been involved in educating food, nutrition and dietetics students at undergraduate and postgraduate level for >25 years. Her research is focused on micronutrients, with a particular interest in the B-vitamins involved in one-carbon metabolism and their role in disease prevention from early life through to older age. She is also interested in the health impacts (including impact on micronutrient status) of transitioning to healthy diets from sustainable sources and is part of the All-Island Food Integrity Initiative which includes key stakeholders from academia, government and Industry from across the island of Ireland.

She leads an active research program at Ulster, where she heads up the Nutrition and Cardiovascular Unit and has vast experience of leading human trials in healthy and patient cohorts. She has published extensively in top-ranked international journals across several disciplines and has attracted significant external funding to support her research. She is committed to mentoring early career researchers and has supervised 25 PhD candidates to successful completion.

Mary has been a member of the Nutrition Society for almost 30 years, having served as an ordinary committee member as well as membership secretary and Chair of the Irish Section prior to her current role as President. External to Ulster sits on the Scientific Committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, is Deputy Director of the Wellcome Trust-Wolfson Northern Ireland Clinical Research Facility and is a member of the Life and Health sciences committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

Mark Hollingsworth is Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary of The Nutrition Society and its subsidiary Trading Company. He is responsible for managing the affairs of the Society for the benefit of members at the direction of the Trustee Board. 

Jade is responsible for developing and managing the Society's scientific progammes, including the Training Academy's programme and the annual conference portfolio.

Andrea manages the Society's Conference portfolio. 

Penny Hunking has written, researched and talked to consumers and professionals about virtually every aspect of diet, weight management and exercise.

Penny thrives on working with new and challenging projects with the aim of communicating clear nutrition messages. She works extensively with a range of clients providing them with innovative solutions to their corporate and national nutrition projects and is experienced in working as part of a team, delivering according to project guidelines and requirements.

A creative thinker with a strong background in programme development and execution, Penny is an accomplished writer, speaker and spokesperson.

Research dietitian with a passion for improving the management of under-researched clinical populations and for the collection of accurate and robust dietary data to classify nutritional status, evaluate interventions and develop guidelines.

Experienced teacher across all levels from undergraduate to Continuing Professional Development for practising Health Professionals passionate about the communication of up to date science and scientific methods.

Dr Bath's main research interest is the extent of iodine deficiency in UK pregnant women and the effect that this may have on child neurodevelopment.

Research areas within this topic include:

• Iodine status of UK pregnant women and women of childbearing age
• Effect of iodine deficiency during pregnancy on child cognitive development
• Dietary sources of iodine in the UK diet
• The effect of farming (organic or conventional) on the iodine content of UK milk
• The interaction between selenium, iodine and thyroid function
• Provision of dietetic resources on iodine for use by the public

Dr. Gary Mendoza’s background is in personal training. Gary holds both British and American qualifications in personal training. He represented GB at the first ever IDEA personal trainer’s convention in Washington USA. Whilst working as a personal trainer (PT) he studied nutrition, graduating with a first in Applied Human Nutrition from the University of Wales. He moved into training trainers and developed a successful nutrition and weight management course; teaching PT’s the skills required to deliver a successful weight management programme. These skills include nutrition, activity and behaviour change. This course formed the basis of his doctoral research. In 2006 he was awarded a PhD in nutrition, specialising in a multi-dimensional treatment for overweight and obese males. A big part of this research looked at the psychology of change. Gary has since undertaken further training in Motivational Interviewing (MI) and was fortunate to be trained by Professors Stephen Rollnick and William Miller, the founders of MI.

Gary’s other area of expertise is sports nutrition. He was programme leader for sports nutrition and advanced sports nutrition at Massey University in New Zealand and trained with Sports Dietitians Australia (SDA). Gary lectures in nutrition for sport and exercise at Bath Spa and Cardiff Metropolitan Universities and is an Academic Associate member of the SENr. He is director of Stages of Change Ltd and delivers the Behaviour Change Workshop; this workshop teaches personal trainers sound behavior change principals. Gary is passionate about raising the standard of nutrition education and behavior change understanding in the leisure industry. He wants the industry to move to a more evidence-based style of nutrition and behavior change education and wants trainers to be able to deliver effective and safe nutrition and weight loss programmes that help clients make the necessary lifestyle changes required.

Basma Ellahi RNutr is Professor of Public Health Nutrition in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Society, University of Chester and an experienced mixed methods researcher. Her research and community work has focussed on the nutrition and health of ethnic communities and in particular south Asian communities, in the prevention of chronic diseasesand includes approaches to weight management, exploring inter-generational differences, inclusivity and cultural needs.  She is Chair of the Nutrition Society Special Interest Group on Diet and Health of Ethnic Minority groups in the UK, a network of those working in this space. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Lahore Pakistan.

Eva-Leanne is a Registered Associate Nutritionist having graduated from the University of Surrey with a BSc in Nutrition. She continued her studies across Europe studying at La Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the University of Reading and Università di Torino under EIT Food’s Master in Food System Programme with a focus on personalised nutrition and functional foods. Eva is currently embarking on a new academic journey as a Doctoral Researcher at Queen’s University Belfast.

She has been a member of the Nutrition Society Student Section since September 2019, occupying the Communications Representative role. Eva looks forward to optimising her comms skills in her new role as student section chair, serving to enhance opportunities available to student members, increase their uptake and help student voices be heard.

Biography to follow

Biography to follow.

Biography to follow.

My original training was in bacterial genomics and gene-regulation. After moving into cancer cell biology, I became particularly interested in the mechanisms by which nutrients, and specifically short-chain fatty acids, regulate cell death pathways and how these processes are distinct from the actions of chemotherapeutics. I was appointed to the role of lecturer in nutrition at Sheffield’s Human Nutrition Unit in 2002, and through this role I developed a wider understanding of nutrition research approaches. 

I joined The Human Nutrition Research Centre at Newcastle University in March 2021, continuing and expanding my focus in nutrition and cancer.

Kate Halliwell is the Chief Scientific Officer at the Food and Drink Federation. 

Biography to follow.

Biography to follow.

Mary Ward graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BSc Hons in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. She is a registered dietitian and a Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), within the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster University, Northern Ireland where she has been involved in educating food, nutrition and dietetics students at undergraduate and postgraduate level for >25 years. Her research is focused on micronutrients, with a particular interest in the B-vitamins involved in one-carbon metabolism and their role in disease prevention from early life through to older age. She is also interested in the health impacts (including impact on micronutrient status) of transitioning to healthy diets from sustainable sources and is part of the All-Island Food Integrity Initiative which includes key stakeholders from academia, government and Industry from across the island of Ireland.

She leads an active research program at Ulster, where she heads up the Nutrition and Cardiovascular Unit and has vast experience of leading human trials in healthy and patient cohorts. She has published extensively in top-ranked international journals across several disciplines and has attracted significant external funding to support her research. She is committed to mentoring early career researchers and has supervised 25 PhD candidates to successful completion.

Mary has been a member of the Nutrition Society for almost 30 years, having served as an ordinary committee member as well as membership secretary and Chair of the Irish Section prior to her current role as President. External to Ulster sits on the Scientific Committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, is Deputy Director of the Wellcome Trust-Wolfson Northern Ireland Clinical Research Facility and is a member of the Life and Health sciences committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

Mark Hollingsworth is Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary of The Nutrition Society and its subsidiary Trading Company. He is responsible for managing the affairs of the Society for the benefit of members at the direction of the Trustee Board. 

Jade is responsible for developing and managing the Society's scientific progammes, including the Training Academy's programme and the annual conference portfolio.

Luwam is responsible for running the Nutrition Society Training Academy's (NSTA) day to day activity. She ensures the successful delivery of webinars and workshops on behalf of the Training Committee and provides support to the Scientific Programmes Manager to develop the Academy programme. 

Luwam also provides support to the Programme Team in delivering collaborative events between conferences and the Academy. 

Associate Professor Eileen Gibney (BSc, PhD, MSc) has worked in the area of human nutrition since 1997. Graduating with a degree in human nutrition from Ulster University, she then obtained her PhD from the Dunn Nutrition Unit, University of Cambridge in 2001. She went on to complete an MSc in Molecular Medicine (TCD). Eileen held post-doctoral positions at the University of Newcastle and Trinity College Dublin, before joining UCD Nutrition in 2005. Her current research interests lie in the area of personalised nutrition, where she develops strategies and innovative technologies for personalised dietary and lifestyle feedback based on dietary, phenotypic and genetic information of the individual. She also conducts human intervention studies to examine the impact of consumption of food and food bioactives on markers of health.

She is a Deputy Director of the UCD Institute of Food and Health and a member of the academic staff for BSc Human Nutrition and several other programmes. She was Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning for the School of Agriculture and Food Science from 2015-2019, and is currently the Director of Executive Education. Eileen sat on the Board of the Irish Association for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (IrSPEN) from 2010-2019, and currently sits on the Public Health Nutrition sub Committee in the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

Eileen joins the Nutrition Society as Trustee without Portfolio, where Eileen will support the Societies ongoing activities. Eileen has been a member of the Society since about 1997, when she was an undergraduate. Since then she has maintained an active engagement with the Society taking on several roles including serving on the Irish Section committee as an ordinary member and subsequently as Secretary. She has also served as Editor of the Nutrition Society Gazette and more recently, as Honorary Officer without Portfolio.

Hannah Theobald is Head of Nutrition at Quorn Foods, which is home to the alternative protein brands, Quorn and Cauldron.

She has a career spanning almost 20 years working in the food and pharmaceutical industries as well as the NGO sector, having worked at Waitrose, the British Nutrition Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), pladis and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) previously. Hannah has experience of nutrition research, product claims, communications, stakeholder engagement, employee wellbeing and strategy development at both the national and international level.

Hannah has both a BSc and PhD in nutrition from King’s College London and is a Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition. She also holds a Diploma in sports nutrition from the International Olympic Committee. In her spare time, she can often be found cycling or hiking in the Surrey Hills or on a plane heading to explore a new country and its food.

I’m currently in my second year of my undergraduate degree at University of Roehampton studying Nutrition and Health. I am particularly interested in gut health and learning about the connection between nutrition and mental health, and would love to pursue this area in my future career. In my spare time I love to read, drink tea, and put my hiking boots on for some fresh air.

Dr. Domenico Azzolino obtained his PhD in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Milan (Milan, Italy). He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda - Policlinic Hospital of Milan (University Hospital).  He previously worked as a PostDoc at the Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health of the University of Milan. His main research interest is on nutrition in older people, in particular how diet may promote healthy ageing and prevent age-associated conditions (e.g., sarcopenia, frailty, geriatric syndromes). Currently, his focus is conducting research on the role played by nutrition as a mediator of the fatigue symptom in older persons. Dr. Azzolino is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Frailty & Aging and participates in the activities of the International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research (ICFSR) Task Force. Dr. Azzolino is Associate Editor for the journal Frontiers in Oral Health (section Cardiometabolic Health) and is involved in several collaborative research projects funded by private and public agencies.

Dr Tara Coppinger (BSc (Hons), PGCE, MA, PhD) is on the Board of Trustees for the Academy of Nutrition Sciences, a Conferred Fellow of the Association for Nutrition and a Registered Nutritionist (Public Health). She is Associate Editor (Diet and Nutrition) at BMC Sports Science, Medicine, and Rehabilitation and was a Research Ethics Committee board member at Munster Technological University (Ireland) for ten years. Tara has published over 50 internationally peer reviewed articles and book chapters related to nutrition, physical activity and health and holds a United Nations Interagency Task Force on NCD’s Award, in recognition of her team’s outstanding contribution towards the NCD related sustainable development goals.

Dr Rubina Hakeem is currently serving as the Chief Nutritionist and Head of Human Nutrition and Dietetics Department at Ziauddin University Karachi . She has earlier served as the Principal and Professor of Nutrition, at Raana Laiqat Ali Khan College of Home Economics, Karachi and as Professor at Taibah University, Madinah Saudi Arabia for three years.  She is a fellow of Association for Nutrition UK. Fellow of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and is registered as dietitian with health professions council UK. She got her masters from Karachi University and Doctorate from University of London UK.  She is a founder member and ex-President of Pakistan Nutrition and Dietetic Society. Chairperson of Nutrition foundation of Pakistan, Member of: British Dietetic Association, World Public Health Nutrition Association, International federation of Home Economics, Diabetes in Asia Study group.

She has received several awards in recognition of her services to the field of nutrition, diabetes, higher education, and research.

Registered Nutritionist.  Biography to follow

In 1999, Dr. Warren PhD, BSc (Hons), PGCHE, R.Anim.Sci achieved her primary degree in Animal Science from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, followed by her PhD in fatty acids in beef from the Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol. She spent five years lecturing degree students in animal and equine science before moving to industry. She is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, a trustee of the British Society of Animal Science, a qualified lecturer, a Cow Signals Trainer and a registered Animal Scientist. She has recently joined the FSA’s Animal Feed and Feed Additives Joint Expert Group. She currently works as a European Technical Manager for Ruminants and Horses for Alltech, involving initiating European research projects, as well as delivering nutritional education and technical sales support.

Mary Yannakoulia is a Professor of Nutrition and Eating Behaviour in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece.

Her research interests are related to factors that influence human eating behavior, adherence to diet and lifestyle interventions, as well as the relationship between diet and aging/cognitive decline and the potential dietary factors associated with successful weight loss. She is particularly interested in the Mediterranean diet: she has collaborated with several research groups in Greece and other countries, in order to investigate how social and other lifestyle factors may affect adherence to the core features of this dietary pattern and the potential health benefits. In 2009 she received a Fulbright research award to study associations between diet and metabolic parameters in Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean populations. She has been the PI in 6 research projects with national or international funding in many others she has acted as co-PI or collaborator. Mary has co-authored >260 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals (> 7,000 citations; h-factor 43).

From 2013 to 2021, she was the Representative of Greece in the High Level Group for Nutrition and Physical Activity of the European Commission, whereas since 2017 Mary has been the President of the National (Greek) Nutrition Policy Committee. She is member of the Editorial board of Metabolism (Elsevier)

Mary Ward graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BSc Hons in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. She is a registered dietitian and a Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), within the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster University, Northern Ireland where she has been involved in educating food, nutrition and dietetics students at undergraduate and postgraduate level for >25 years. Her research is focused on micronutrients, with a particular interest in the B-vitamins involved in one-carbon metabolism and their role in disease prevention from early life through to older age. She is also interested in the health impacts (including impact on micronutrient status) of transitioning to healthy diets from sustainable sources and is part of the All-Island Food Integrity Initiative which includes key stakeholders from academia, government and Industry from across the island of Ireland.

She leads an active research program at Ulster, where she heads up the Nutrition and Cardiovascular Unit and has vast experience of leading human trials in healthy and patient cohorts. She has published extensively in top-ranked international journals across several disciplines and has attracted significant external funding to support her research. She is committed to mentoring early career researchers and has supervised 25 PhD candidates to successful completion.

Mary has been a member of the Nutrition Society for almost 30 years, having served as an ordinary committee member as well as membership secretary and Chair of the Irish Section prior to her current role as President. External to Ulster sits on the Scientific Committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, is Deputy Director of the Wellcome Trust-Wolfson Northern Ireland Clinical Research Facility and is a member of the Life and Health sciences committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

Mark Hollingsworth is Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary of The Nutrition Society and its subsidiary Trading Company. He is responsible for managing the affairs of the Society for the benefit of members at the direction of the Trustee Board. 

Alison is responsible for managing all of the membership activities, including supporting the members and maintaining and developing the membership experience.

Luwam assists the Membership Manager in the day to day administration of the membership department of the Society, liaising with members, resolving any issues that arise in the process of members joining and renewing and ensuring that members have access to their benefits. Many of these tasks require work on the database to ensure that the members data held is accurate and up-to-date, and that information is there for other members of the team to utilise.

Dr Carrie Ruxton PhD, lead consultant at Nutrition Communications, has over 20 years' experience as a registered dietitian and nutrition expert. Dr Carrie Ruxton is an award-winning dietitan, health writer and TV nutritionist.  With a PhD in Child Nutrition and over 100 published articles on diet and health, Carrie has a strong grounding in nutrition science. She has an understanding of the food industry and its important role in the nation's diet.

As well as helping companies to develop healthy, innovative food and beverage products, Carrie regularly appears in magazines and newspapers, and has a number of radio and TV credits (Channel Four news, BBC Three's 'Honey We're Killing the Kids', Radio Scotland, Five Live, BBC Belfast).

Carrie has worked with a wide range of organisations including the NHS, Food Standards Agency, major food companies, ingredient manufacturers, the European Commission, PR agencies and national newspapers. 

Carrie's expertise in communicating clear, evidence-based nutrition and diet messages has involved her in many different projects all over the world.

Penny Hunking has written, researched and talked to consumers and professionals about virtually every aspect of diet, weight management and exercise.

Penny thrives on working with new and challenging projects with the aim of communicating clear nutrition messages. She works extensively with a range of clients providing them with innovative solutions to their corporate and national nutrition projects and is experienced in working as part of a team, delivering according to project guidelines and requirements.

A creative thinker with a strong background in programme development and execution, Penny is an accomplished writer, speaker and spokesperson.

Dr Emilie Combet is a senior lecturer in nutrition at the University of Glasgow.  She joined the University in 2005, following a PhD at Horticulture Research International (HRI, Wellesbourne UK). Her research focuses on foods, nutrition and the life cycle, with special interest on stress (ageing, nitro/oxidation, obesity and inflammation), the “farm to fork to society” nexus and its implications for all stakeholders (community, industry and clinical settings).

Her group’s work has contributed toward establishing innovative solutions to explore the contribution of diet on lifelong health, including near-market research (reformulated meals, use of novel ingredients) to answer challenges to the nutritional status. She has contributed to television series focusing on diet and nutrition. In 2018, she was the recipient of a British Science Association media fellowship, leading to a placement at The Herald.

Dr Greg Lessons is a registered nutritionist who has a full time professional role with the Fire Fighters Charity as Health Improvement Lead. This involves developing, implementing and evaluating educational resources and behavioural change interventions for the benefit of the UK fire service community. His unique academic and professional background have prepared Greg perfectly for this role, as his MSc and PhD research resulted in the first UK fire station-based nutrition interventions, the first dietary assessment tool validated for UK firefighters and the first firefighter body composition reference charts.

Greg was awarded his PhD in April 2021, with Prof Janet Cade conducting the viva. Prior to this, He spent 3 years as the first full time nutritionist in any UK fire service (London Fire Brigade) before which, he served London as a full time firefighter of 17 years.

In addition to his academic and professional credentials, Greg was awarded the student prize for ‘best original communication’ at the Nutrition Society Winter Conference in 2017, where he presented his first abstract. In 2019 Greg was named ‘Nutritionist of the year’ by the Caroline Walker Trust’. He then went on to win the Public Sector Catering ‘Health and Nutrition Award’ for his pioneering work in the delivery of a clear health and nutrition strategy in the London Fire Brigade. Since February 2019 Greg has also been a part time associate lecturer at London Metropolitan University where he has taught various areas of Human Nutrition.

Dr Anne Moorhead is a Senior Lecturer in Health Communication at Ulster University. She has a MSc Human Nutrition and a PhD Biomedical Sciences (Nutrition); and is a Registered Nutritionist, Public Health (RNutr), Chartered Scientist (CSci), and Accredited Healthcare Communicator. She has experience working in clinical and consultancy in the areas of public health and mental health. Anne’s research interest is in healthcare communication, in particular communication technologies in healthcare in the areas of mental health and obesity. She has led interdisciplinary national and international research projects and teams, secured research funding and achieved extensive publications including research papers, reports and book chapters. She has completed various civic activities over many years, worked with numerous organisations and community partners in the area of public health locally and nationally. She has numerous global networks, working with universities, clinical partners, and industries in Ireland, the UK, Europe and America. She is a Board member and Section Editor for the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the leading e-health peer-reviewed journal, and a Board member for the Journal, Patient Education and Counselling.  She is a reviewer for various international journals and funding organisations and is currently a member of several funding panels including Horizon 2020. She has supervised and is currently supervising numerous PhD students, including being a PhD examiner. She is a member of several external committees, including the research committee for the International Association for Communication in Healthcare,  also the Vice Chair of the NHS Research Ethics Committee, Office of Research Ethics Committees for Northern Ireland.

Maria Balhara's primary research interests are in medicine and nutrition. Her current focus includes exploring interventions for reducing intake of ultra-processed foods to manage modifiable cardiovascular and endocrine health risk factors, investigating disordered eating behaviors among adolescents, studying molecular mechanisms underlying congenital heart disease with implications for personalized medicine approaches, and developing interventions to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable populations. Maria is an active member of several organisations dedicated to these fields of study, including The Nutrition Society, American Heart Association, and Endocrine Society. She also serves on the Pathway Core Committee at Broward College where she is a dual-enrollment student.

Biography to follow.

Mary Ward graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BSc Hons in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. She is a registered dietitian and a Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), within the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster University, Northern Ireland where she has been involved in educating food, nutrition and dietetics students at undergraduate and postgraduate level for >25 years. Her research is focused on micronutrients, with a particular interest in the B-vitamins involved in one-carbon metabolism and their role in disease prevention from early life through to older age. She is also interested in the health impacts (including impact on micronutrient status) of transitioning to healthy diets from sustainable sources and is part of the All-Island Food Integrity Initiative which includes key stakeholders from academia, government and Industry from across the island of Ireland.

She leads an active research program at Ulster, where she heads up the Nutrition and Cardiovascular Unit and has vast experience of leading human trials in healthy and patient cohorts. She has published extensively in top-ranked international journals across several disciplines and has attracted significant external funding to support her research. She is committed to mentoring early career researchers and has supervised 25 PhD candidates to successful completion.

Mary has been a member of the Nutrition Society for almost 30 years, having served as an ordinary committee member as well as membership secretary and Chair of the Irish Section prior to her current role as President. External to Ulster sits on the Scientific Committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, is Deputy Director of the Wellcome Trust-Wolfson Northern Ireland Clinical Research Facility and is a member of the Life and Health sciences committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

Mark Hollingsworth is Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary of The Nutrition Society and its subsidiary Trading Company. He is responsible for managing the affairs of the Society for the benefit of members at the direction of the Trustee Board. 

Cassandra is responsible for the Society's academic publications, the scientific programmes portfolio and scientific and external ensuring an integrated approach across the Society’s activities. She contributes to the Society’s strategic and operational planning, being a member of the senior management team. 

Juliette assists the Science Director in the development, maintenance and use of digital channels and content for stakeholder communications and engagement. She is the Society’s in-house designer and supports the implementation of the Society’s strategic objectives, the Strategic Communication and the Social Media Strategy. Juliette supports the development and delivery of communication materials (digital and print) for all departments of the Society and provides communications support to the International Secretariats.  

Professor of Human Nutrition at Queen’s University Belfast, Jayne  - MA Hons (Oxon), PhD FSB -  is part of the Centre for Public Health, within the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences. She is also Deputy Director of the Institute for Global Food Security, one of the University’s four global research institutes.

Professor Woodside specialises in the use of biomarkers to assess dietary intake, conducting controlled dietary interventions examining clinically relevant endpoints, and trials promoting long-term dietary change. Jayne’s ongoing research aims to determine the role of diet and lifestyle in the primary and secondary prevention of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, including intervention trials using whole food/whole diet approaches, and the development of interventions to promote behaviour change.

President from 2001 to 2004

Professor Mathers is Professor of Human Nutrition, Director of the Human Nutrition Research Centre and Director of the Centre for Healthier Lives in Newcastle University. He was an undergraduate in Newcastle and undertook his PhD and post-doctoral research in the University of Cambridge followed by a Research Fellow post in Edinburgh University before being appointed in Newcastle. His major research interests are in understanding how eating patterns influence risks of age-related diseases including heart disease, diabetes, dementia and bowel cancer. He uses genomic and epigenomics approaches to understand the mechanisms though which nutrition influences cell function and, ultimately, health.  

Professor Mathers has a long-term interest in developing and implementing large scale human intervention studies to improve healthy ageing (The LIVEWELL Programme), and to reduce the risk common age-related diseases including bowel cancer (The CAPP Studies) and dementia (MedEx-UK). He led the EU-funded Food4Me intervention study which used a web-based approach to deliver a personalised nutrition intervention across 7 European countries. 

Among his external roles, Professor Mathers was President of the Nutrition Society and served on numerous grants panels and other committees for the MRC, BBSRC, ESRC, World Cancer Research Fund and other research funders. He is a Trustee of the British Nutrition Foundation and of the Rank Prize Funds. Professor Mathers is Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition. 

My original training was in bacterial genomics and gene-regulation. After moving into cancer cell biology, I became particularly interested in the mechanisms by which nutrients, and specifically short-chain fatty acids, regulate cell death pathways and how these processes are distinct from the actions of chemotherapeutics. I was appointed to the role of lecturer in nutrition at Sheffield’s Human Nutrition Unit in 2002, and through this role I developed a wider understanding of nutrition research approaches. 

I joined The Human Nutrition Research Centre at Newcastle University in March 2021, continuing and expanding my focus in nutrition and cancer.

Professor Alison Gallagher is currently Head of Doctoral College (Coleraine/Magee) at Ulster University.

With over 90 peer-reviewed publications (h-index of 30), Alison contributes to the research conducted within the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE) at Ulster. Her research interests resonate within the area of obesity and include development of risk factors for disease, low-energy/non-nutritive sweeteners and their potential impact on health, physical activity and health (including implementation of lifestyle interventions at key stages across the lifecycle).

After completing her BSc Hons Human Nutrition and PhD at Ulster, Alison worked as Research Fellow (University of Strathclyde), then Research Officer (Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project) before returning to Ulster as Lecturer in 1999; being promoted to Senior Lecturer and subsequently Professor of Public Health Nutrition. A Registered Nutritionist (Public Health), she was the first Fellow of the Association of Nutrition (FAfN) on the island of Ireland. Alison is a passionate advocate for the European Nutrition Leadership Platform (ENLP), having participated in the ENLP seminar in 1997 and being involved with this international leadership programme ever since, and is the current Chair/President of the ENLP Board (www.enlp.eu.com). Alison is also a member/Vice-chair of Northern Ireland Chest Heart Stroke Scientific (NICHS) Research Committee, expert member on the Scientific Advisory Panel on Sweeteners supported by the International Sweeteners Association (ISA), member/Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Nutrition Bulletin and a member of the UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee (https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-nutrition-and-health-claims-comm...).

An active member of the Nutrition Society, Alison Chaired the Scientific Committee for the Federation of Nutritional Sciences (FENS) 13th European Nutrition Conference (www.fens2019.org) and was appointed as Editor-in-Chief for Proceedings of the Nutrition Society in 2021.

Tom Hill is Professor of Nutrition at Newcastle University. His research and teaching specialisms fall under four broad areas: nutrition in very-old age, micronutrients and health, food and health and biofortification strategies. Ongoing RCUK funded projects include:

• Diet and health in 85+ year-olds (The Newcastle 85+ Cohort Study)
• Egg enrichment with vitamin D (The Sunshine Eggs projects)
• The nutritional profile of vertically grown crops (The Infarm2.x project)
• Nutrition and healthy brain ageing (The NuBrain project)

Tom served on the editorial board of the British Journal of Nutrition and the Journal of Nutritional Sciences from 2012-2018 and is currently an editorial board member for Nutrition Research Reviews.  He was membership secretary of the Nutrition Society, Irish section from 2006-2011 and was the local organiser of the Societies’ 70th anniversary meeting, jointly hosted with the American Society for Nutrition which was held in Cork in 2011. He is one of four editors of the Nutrition Society, Introduction to Human Nutrition third edition textbook. 

M. Andrea Azcarate-Peril, Ph. D. is Associate Professor of Medicine, GI Division in the School of Medicine at UNC Chapel Hill.  She is also the founding and current Director of the UNC Microbiome Core, which provides research and technical support to investigators interested in addressing the roles of the host-associated microbiota in health and disease.

Dr. Azcarate-Peril is a microbiologist by training and has extensive experience in the characterization of complex microbial populations and functional metagenomics using culture-dependent and culture-independent methods including Next Generation Sequencing. Her research projects have focused on functional genomics of probiotics and gut microbiome modulation by prebiotics for over 20 years, resulting in over 65 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Azcarate-Peril’s current projects aim to define modulators of the gut microbiome capable of reversing dysbioses induced by age, diet and nutritional behaviors. She is particularly interested in prebiotics and application-directed probiotics to address and prevent gastrointestinal disorders.

My research interests are focused on the evaluation of interventions and policies to improve nutritional behaviour, behavioural nutrition in children and young people, and factors affecting diet quality and health outcomes.

Professor Edward's work encompasses studies of the gut microflora, colonisation of the infant gut, metabolic and bio-availability of phenolic antioxidant, and the impact of dietary carbohydrate on metabolism. She has also coordinated two major EU projects MEDIGUT and INFABIO.

Mary Ward graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BSc Hons in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. She is a registered dietitian and a Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), within the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster University, Northern Ireland where she has been involved in educating food, nutrition and dietetics students at undergraduate and postgraduate level for >25 years. Her research is focused on micronutrients, with a particular interest in the B-vitamins involved in one-carbon metabolism and their role in disease prevention from early life through to older age. She is also interested in the health impacts (including impact on micronutrient status) of transitioning to healthy diets from sustainable sources and is part of the All-Island Food Integrity Initiative which includes key stakeholders from academia, government and Industry from across the island of Ireland.

She leads an active research program at Ulster, where she heads up the Nutrition and Cardiovascular Unit and has vast experience of leading human trials in healthy and patient cohorts. She has published extensively in top-ranked international journals across several disciplines and has attracted significant external funding to support her research. She is committed to mentoring early career researchers and has supervised 25 PhD candidates to successful completion.

Mary has been a member of the Nutrition Society for almost 30 years, having served as an ordinary committee member as well as membership secretary and Chair of the Irish Section prior to her current role as President. External to Ulster sits on the Scientific Committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, is Deputy Director of the Wellcome Trust-Wolfson Northern Ireland Clinical Research Facility and is a member of the Life and Health sciences committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

Mark Hollingsworth is Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary of The Nutrition Society and its subsidiary Trading Company. He is responsible for managing the affairs of the Society for the benefit of members at the direction of the Trustee Board. 

Cassandra is responsible for the Society's academic publications, the scientific programmes portfolio and scientific and external ensuring an integrated approach across the Society’s activities. She contributes to the Society’s strategic and operational planning, being a member of the senior management team.