Food for Thought: What Role for Future Foods in Improving Public Health?
Food is integral to all of our lives. It is essential for survival, as well as playing a central role in culture, society and celebration. But food can also make us ill; either directly, through foodborne disease or allergy, or indirectly, through poor diet.
This webinar will look at some of the history around food and health in the UK and further afield and then consider how changes in the food system can have knock-on implications for public health across diverse areas. Then we will consider some of the current and future developments in food production and consumption and explore emerging ideas about how these could potentially be harnessed to tackle some of the most significant global health problems.
Speaker
Professor Robin May, Chief Scientific Adviser, Food Standards Agency & Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham
Professor Robin May, took up his role as the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in July 2020.
As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes. He is responsible for the integrity of the science and evidence that underpins FSA activities, as well as for communicating the FSA’s evidence-based approach to other government departments, external stakeholders and consumers.
Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.
Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms. He was appointed as Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022, where he will be delivering free lectures to the public on medicine, health and related sciences.
Chair
Professor Rosemary Green, Professor in Sustainability, Nutrition And Health, LSHTM
Admission
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