The FSANZ Fellows

The Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Fellows program was established in 2000 to build a network of distinguished experts in areas relevant to FSANZ scientific work and food regulation. FSANZ Fellows are invited to join the program because they are respected professionals in fields related to food regulation or of scientific significance to FSANZ, with a level of independence which allows them to provide staff with advice or critical review that is authoritative, objective and at the cutting edge of world knowledge.

Professor Julie Byles is Director of the Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, a Priority Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, co-Director of the Newcastle Institute of Public Health, and co-director of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. As a clinical epidemiologist and gerontologist, Professor Byles has interests and expertise in risk determination, assessment, screening and diagnostic tests, other health care evaluation, and measurement of health outcomes.    Her recent work has included research on the effectiveness of health assessments including dietary intakes, and nutrition screening and interventions to enhance nutrition for older people in community, hospital and aged care settings.

Professor Jeff Borland is Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne. His main research interests are analysis of the operation of labour markets in Australia and applications of microeconomic theory. In 1997 he was awarded the Australian Academy of Social Sciences Medal for Excellence in Scholarship in the Social Sciences.

Professor Ken Buckle is a Professor of Food Technology and Director of China Relations at the University of New South Wales.   Professor Buckle has research and teaching interest in food preservation, food safety, mechanisms of food deterioration, traditional food processing and food Standards and has taught at universities in South-East Asia and the USA.   He was appointed head of the Department of Food Science and Technology in 1994, Head of the School of Applied Bioscience in 1998 and was appointed Associate Dean, International Development for the Faculty of Science in June 2000.   He is a Past President of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology and of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology and is currently Chairman (2003-06) of the Scientific Council of the International Union of Food Science and Technology.   Until recently, he was a FSANZ Board member and was a FSANZ Fellow at the time of his appointment to the Board in 2002.

Professor John Cary is a Professorial Fellow, and former Director, in the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation at Victoria University. His research interests are in the social sciences related to sustainable food production and human and social behaviour related to natural resources use in food production.

Professor Lynne Cobiac is the Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, at Flinders University. She previously spent twenty years at the CSIRO working on a range of food related research projects and is currently overseeing the nutrition component of the Australian National Children’s Nutrition & Physical Activity Survey.

Professor Mike Gidley is the Director of the Centre for Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Queensland and Research Mentor for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.   His interests include plant-based foods, food materials science and the relationships between food structure and nutritional properties.

Professor Graham Giles is the Chief Investigator of the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (Health 2020) and is the Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Centre of the Cancer Council of Victoria. He is the principal investigator of a number of studies of families with cancer of the bowel, breast and prostate at the University of Melbourne.

Dr John Huckerby is the director of Power Projects Limited, a consultancy that provides strategic decision-making, business development and operational project management services to the energy industry. His clients include overseas energy companies interested in investing in New Zealand and a range of government and public sector agencies.  Dr. Huckerby has been a Scientific Fellow since the inauguration of the programme in 2000.  His principal contribution to FSANZ has been in areas of project and contract management.  He currently serves on the Stakeholder Evaluation Committee

Professor Peter Langridge is the CEO of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics based at the University of Adelaide. He has expertise in plant genomics, genetics and breeding.

Dr Rob Loblay is the Director of the Allergy Unit at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Senior Lecturer in Immunology at the University of Sydney. His specialty is Clinical Immunology and Allergy. His special interests are food allergy, food intolerance, allergic disease (general), coeliac disease, autoimmunity, chemical sensitivity; bioethics.  

Professor John McNeil is the Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. His principal interests include cardiovascular epidemiology, drug safety and toxicity. He retains a clinical involvement as a vascular physician on the Vascular Medicine Unit at the Monash Medical Centre.

Professor Roger Morris is Gilruth Professor of Animal Health at Massey University and Director of the Massey University EpiCentre, which comprises about 25 staff and over 40 postgraduate students. He trained as a veterinarian and an agricultural economist. Professor Morris has undertaken over 300 consultancies worldwide for international organisations, governments and other bodies.  

Professor Brian Priestly is a Professorial Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine (DEPM) at Monash University. His primary area of expertise is in toxicology, and he took up the position of Director of the Australian Centre for Human Health Risk Assessment (ACHHRA) in December 2003.

Professor Richard Shepherdis the Co-Director at the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. Professor Shepherd has provided expert review of a literature review of social aspects of food fortification for FSANZ.

Professor Murray  Skeaff is head of the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Otago. His areas of research include health effects of fats and oils on cardiovascular disease, fatty acid biomarkers, and folate and vitamin D.

Professor Tony Smithis the Chair of the Complementary Medicines Evaluation Committee at the Therapeutic Goods Administration and a Member of the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Policy. He is an Emeritus Professor in Clinical Pharmacology in the University of Newcastle. Professor Smith was a consultant physician in the Newcastle Mater Hospital for more than 25 years. He currently works extensively for the WHO, mainly in the area of improving the quality of use of medicines especially in developing countries.

Professor Mark Tamplin is a microbiologist at the University of Tasmania. His research includes modelling the growth and inactivation of microbial pathogens in food, including the effects of competitive microflora, strain variation and physiological state.