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.
Over the past years, FSANZ Fellows have provided invaluable input into a variety of FSANZ projects including:
- Participation in the scientific advisory group for health claims;
- Expert opinion on phytosterols applications;
- Dietary modelling expertise;
- Expertise in project management of large contracts for surveys and analytical programs; and
- Peer review of both published material and FSANZ material on topics such as genetically modified food and phytosterols.
FSANZ currently has eighteen appointed Fellows whose expertise covers a broad range of topics related to FSANZ activities.
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 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 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 Nigel French is the Co-Director of EpiCentre and Professor of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health, Massey University, New Zealand. He has an interest in molecular epidemiology and risk research including: food and environmental pathogens, particularly Campylobacter, E. coli and Salmonella. Prior to joining Massey University in 2004, he was Head of the Defra Epidemiology Fellowship Unit. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool and a visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.
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 Stephen Goodall is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) and Senior Health Economist at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has expertise in the economic evaluation of health programs. His interests include public health, primary care, access to health care and equity.
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 Brian Priestly is a Professorial Fellow (now part time) in the Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine (DEPM) at Monash University, where he heads the Australian Centre for Human Health Risk Assessment (ACHHRA). His primary area of expertise is in toxicology and health risk assessment.
Professor Seppo Salminen is the Director of Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku, Professor Health Biosciences, University of Turku and Visiting Professor, Food & Health, Vienna University of Life Science, Vienna, Austria. Professor Salminen has a long career in the food science and food industry areas with a particular interest in food toxicology, probiotics, novel food risk assessment and health claims for which topics he is on the EFSA advisory panels.
Professor Richard Shepherd is 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 Smith is 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.