Prof. I. Rowlands
Professor of Human Nutrition Department of Food Biosciences University of Reading, Reading

Ian Rowland has a BSc and PhD in microbiology from University College London and is a Registered Nutritionist. For 10 years he was Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Ulster before moving last year to his present position as head of the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Nutrition at the University of Reading. His current research areas include the role of diet (in particular probiotics, prebiotics, phytoestrogens, and phytochemicals) in prevention of colon, breast and prostate cancer. He was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Gent for his work on nutrition and cancer risk.

Prof. P. Aggett
Emeritus Professor of Child Health and Nutrition and Past Head of the Lancashire School Of Health and Postgraduate Medicine, University of Central Lancashire.

Peter Aggett is a paediatrician with a specific clinical interest in Paediatric Gastroenterology; he is also a Nutritionist in human nutrition and metabolism in health and disease with a particular interest in the metabolism of inorganic nutrients. He currently serves on the Food Standards Agency Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (Vice Chair) and on its Panel on Maternal and Child Nutrition. He has worked on Advisory Panels on recommended intakes of nutrients for the UK, the European Union, and the WHO/IAEA/FAO, and on Nutrient Risk Assessment and the setting of Upper Levels of intake for the UK and WHO; working most recently on WHO/UNU/FAO/EC approaches internationally to harmonise the ways of setting of such guidelines.

Dr. Margaret Ashwell
Independent Nutrition Science Consultant

Dr Margaret Ashwell has viewed the relationship between food and health from all sides. She has been a Senior Research Scientist with the Medical Research Council, Principal of the Good Housekeeping Institute, and Science Director of the British Nutrition Foundation. She served on the UK Government’s Food Advisory Committee for 9 years. Margaret now runs her own Company, Ashwell Associates (Europe) Ltd.

Margaret devised the Ashwell ® Shape Chart to focus attention on the health risks of central obesity. She acted as Research Co-ordinator for the Food Standards Agency's Research Programme on Nutrient Status and Function from 1994 to 2007. She has undertaken several reviews of FSA funded programmes and has acted as a scientific facilitator on many occasions. Ashwell Associates have acted as disseminators in several EU projects including The EU Childhood Obesity Programme; Food in Later Life and the Early Nutrition Programming Project - EARNEST. A current role with industrial clients is to help them with the scientific substantiation of health claims. Margaret is the founder of a network for self employed nutritionists called SENSE.

Margaret lives in the village of Ashwell, near Cambridge UK, and is married with two daughters and two small grandchildren. Her passions are golf, tennis, football, cricket, photography and local history.

Dr. C. Waine
Head of RCGP Nutrition & Director of Health Programmes & Primary Care Development, Sunderland Health Authority Colin Waine O.B.E. F.R.C.G.P., F.R.C.Path

Colin Waine was a Principal in General Practice in his home town of Bishop Auckland from 1961 -1992. He was then Director of Health Programmes and Primary Care Development in the South West Durham Health Authority between 1993 and 2002. Since then he has been a Visiting Professor at Sunderland University. He has held many posts in the RCGP and was Chairman from 1990-1993. Dr Waine has lectured and published widely on disease management and the care of children. His book Obesity and Weight Management in Primary Care has been translated into German and Portuguese. He has been chairman of the NOF from 2005 to the present day.

Prof. J. Buttriss
Director General, British Nutrition Foundation

Professor Judith Buttriss took over the role of Director General of the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) on 1st October 2007, having been BNF’s Science Director for almost 10 years. She is an Honorary Professor at Robert Gordon University, a Visiting Professor at Kings College London and a Registered Public Health Nutritionist. She has been a member of a number of national committees concerned with funding research, and with public health and nutrition issues. Recent examples are the Public Health Commission and the Government Office of Science’s committee that reviewed the FSA’s use and commissioning of science. She has contributed extensively to UK government activities in the area of diet and nutrition, including work on nutrient profiling and on signposting for the Food Standards Agency, on obesity in children for the Department of Health, on school meals, and on the Family Food Survey for Defra. She was also a member of the UK’s former Joint Health Claims Initiative Expert Committee since its inception. She has a wide range of research interests in the area of nutrition and its communication, and is currently workpackage leader (dissemination) for a EU Framework Programme 6 project and involved in the work of several other EU-funded activities.

Alison Shepherd
Nurse Tutor, Department of Primary and Intermediate Care, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London

Alison Shepherd is currently a Nurse Tutor at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, which is part of Kings College University London. Her role’s and responsibilities include teaching both pre and post registration nursing students and she is also the module leader for the Pre registration Nursing Public Health Module. As a Registered Nutritionist with the Nutrition Society within the UK, Ms Shepherd is a keen freelance Nutritional Writer with well over 40 publications. She also works clinically as a Nurse Practitioner at Whitechapel Walk In Centre and is a Nurse Advisor for a National Out of hours Clinical Company.

Dr. Susan A. Lanham-New
Reader in Nutrition, Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford. 

Dr Susan Lanham-New is a Reader in Nutrition at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK and a Registered Public Health Nutritionist. She has been an academic member of staff within the School of Biomedical & Molecular Sciences (now Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences) at the University of Surrey since 1996, having previous worked and studied at the University of Aberdeen and the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland. Her research focuses on the area of nutrition and bone health, for which she has won a number of awards including three Young Investigator Awards at the World (1996), UK (2000) and European (2001) Osteoporosis Conferences as well as the 2001 Nutrition Society Medal for her work on the role of the skeleton in acid-base homeostasis. She is Editor (with Professor J-P Bonjour, Geneva) of the first academic textbook on ‘Nutritional Aspects of Bone Health’ (NAoBH), published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in December 2003, which has sold over 950 copies and raised more than £4.5k for the National Osteoporosis Society. She is first Editor on the Prevention and Management of Osteoporosis textbook which was published by Clinical Publishing in April 2007 and is now working on the 2nd Edition of NAoBH with JP Bonjour. She has published more than 90 peer-reviewed original papers, book chapters and reviews and raised more than £2.5M in research grants. She has 5 students who have successfully completed their PhD, 2 students awaiting PhD vivas and a further 7 students in active PhD study. She is a member of the Nutrition Forum for the National Osteoporosis Society and the Scientific Advisory Group of British Nutrition Foundation and the 2009 BNF Taskforce on Ageing.  Susan is on the Editorial Board of Osteoporosis Review and Osteoporosis International. She was Honorary Communications Officer of the UK Nutrition Society from 2000-2006, Local Organiser for the 2009 Nutrition Society Annual Conference and more recently has taken over from Professor Mike Gibney as Editor-in-Chief of the Nutrition Society Textbook Series (4 books, 20,000 copies sold).   As of 30th November 2009, Susan will be a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).

Ms. O. Amadi
Lead Professional Officer & Health Visitor, CPHVA

Prof. M. P. Rayman
Professor of Nutritional Medicine, University of Surrey

Professor Margaret Rayman has a doctorate in Inorganic Biochemistry from Somerville College, Oxford and has held post-doctoral fellowships at the Institute of Cancer Research and Imperial College. She is now Professor of Nutritional Medicine at the University of Surrey where she directs the highly respected MSc Programme in Nutritional Medicine. Her research centres on the importance of trace minerals, most notably selenium, to human health. She has obtained funding to carry out trials of selenium in localised prostate cancer and the pregnancy disease pre-eclampsia. She has published widely, including a paper in Cancer Research that showed a link between prostate cancer risk and selenoprotein genotype. She has been a judge for the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards and sits as a magistrate in Surrey.

Miss S. Baic
Senior Lecturer, Bristol University

Sue Baic is a Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Public Health at the University of Bristol where she teaches and researches the role of diet and lifestyle in prevention and management of chronic health problems including cardiovascular disease and obesity. Sue has over 20 years clinical experience as a Registered Dietitian in the NHS including posts in general practice and a specialist lipid clinic. She regularly works with the media as a spokesperson on diet related matters.

Prof. Mike Symonds
Professor of Developmental Physiology/Head of Academic Division of Child Health.

Professor Symonds is a Professor in Developmental Physiology at the University of Nottingham and Head of the Academic Division of Child Health. His PhD on Nutrition, Pregnancy and Size at birth was awarded from the University of Reading in 1987. This was followed by post-doctoral positions at the Universities of Oxford, Nottingham and Reading. In 1993, he was awarded a Welcome Trust Lectureship at the University of Reading and in 1997 he moved to Nottingham University following a six month sabbatical at the University of Adelaide. His main research interests are the developmental origins of adult health and disease with particular focus on adipose tissue growth, the kidney and cardiovascular control mechanisms. He is theme leader of a European Union Framework 6 Integrated Five year Project entitled “Early Nutrition programming- long term follow up of efficacy and safety trials and integrated epidemiological, genetic, animal, consumer and economic research (EARNEST)”. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 40 review papers and 15 book chapters and given over 50 invited lectures at National and International Scientific meetings.

Amanda Ursell
Freelance, London

Elphee Medici
Registered Dietitian, Nutrition Communications Manager, Nutrilicious, London

Elphee has worked as a dietitian in the NHS (for over 10 years) and in industry for the past 9 years specialising in healthcare professional PR and trying to keep marketeers enthusiasm in check with consumer nutrition and health messaging. Her expertise includes healthcare professional PR, consumer marketing communication, regulatory affairs and scientfic events management. Her work with leading food companies – Unilever, Yoplait, Alpro – has enabled Elphee to continue focusing on her scientific expertise whilst fine tuning her interpretation of the science for consumer communications in a responsible yet impactful manor. Her work has included setting up of scientific advisory bodies, co-author of a scientific review, writing of advertorials and editorials for core healthcare professional journals, setting up and driving consumer health and nutrition communications, managing the scientific programmes for conferences, scientific and consumer presentations and legally proofing consumer health communications. Elphee is currently working at Nutrilicious Ltd, a niche nutrition communiations company with over 20 years experience.

Julie Foxton
Physical Activity Co-ordinator for the Early Years Department of Health – South East GOSE Bridge House

Julie Foxton is a qualified nurse, midwife and health visitor. She spent several years at the charity HEART UK, as the senior nurse advisor. Following a degree in public health she has been working at the regional offices of the Department of Health in the South East within the Healthy Weight team, targeting obesity, with a special focus on physical activity. Julie has published extensively in the national and medical press about cardiovascular disease, its treatment and response to lifestyles changes and modification.

Lynn Summerside
Founder Director, Sit ‘N’ ‘B’ Fit CIC, Sunderland

Lynn’s earlier career used was in Health and Social Care working with the elderly and people with disabilities. She saw for herself how critical mobility was for being able to live independently and its role in bolstering self esteem and wellbeing. And she also saw how hard it often was to maintain, or regain mobility, once it was lost. After bringing up her three children she wanted return to work and utilize the skills that she had obtained to benefit people’s lives. So she decided to qualify in chair based and older adults exercise , with the aim of offering a package of manageable routines to help people in Sunderland, North East England quite literally get back on their feet. To progress with this Lynn trained with the Register of Exercise Professionals as an Exercise Movement and Dance Teacher. Lynn also holds a second degree Reiki qualification, and organises Cancer Awareness workshops on behalf of the Health and Community Collaborative in Sunderland. In April 2009 Lynn was featured on the Channel 4 series: The Secret Millionaire. Multimillionaire Jonathon Hick donated £15,000 to the organisation in recognition for the work that Sit ‘N’ ‘B’ Fit carries out in the community.

Dr Janice Harland
Nutritionist and Consultant in Nutrition & Health Claims

Dr Janice Harland graduated in Agricultural Biochemistry and Nutrition from the University of Newcastle where she also undertook her post graduate studies. She then joined British Sugar and spent the next 25 years working in the Food Industry including three years as the Director of the Sugar Bureau. In 1998 she established her own company HARLANDHALL ASSOCIATES, that specialises in improving understanding of nutrition and health science. Her areas of specific interest are the substantiation of health and nutrition claims and regulatory matters related to them, product development, in particular functional foods and nutrition through the Food Chain. She has also successfully completed a dossier for consideration by EFSA for an Article 14 claim, which was granted in late 2008 and has a further dossier under consideration at the present time. She was the author of three separate claim dossiers for consideration by JHCI Expert Committee including the dossier supporting the soya protein and cholesterol reduction claim. Her recent scientific publications include systematic reviews of the scientific literature relating to soya protein and cholesterol, whole grain consumption and body weight and .the economic and heart health benefits of replacing saturated fat with monounsaturated fat.