FSANZ Fellows
The FSANZ Fellows program was developed to create a network of experts who can provide FSANZ with objective expert advice and critical review. The program also helps to develop academic links and networks.
Established in 2000, the program has been valuable to the scientific work of the agency. FSANZ Fellows provide expert advice on applications, proposals and other risk assessment activities of the agency. FSANZ Fellows, within their relevant areas of expertise, also peer review FSANZ work and provide training to FSANZ staff.
There are currently 19 FSANZ Fellows, from a wide range of scientific and professional fields including nutrition, economics, project management, social sciences, food science and data evaluation.
Current FSANZ Fellows include:
Professor Ken Buckle - Professor of Food Technology and Director of China Relations at the University of New South Wales. Professor Buckle has a 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. Professor Buckle 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. Professor Buckle is also 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.
Professor John Cary - Professorial Fellow, and former Director, in the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation at Victoria University. Professor Cary’s 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 - Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, at Flinders University. Professor Cobiac previously spent 20 years at CSIRO working on a range of food related research projects and is currently overseeing the nutrition component of the Australian National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey.
Dr Laurence Eyres - Heads ECG Ltd, a consultancy for the Food and Dietary Supplements Industries specializing in dairy, oils and fats and related lipids, product and business development. Until recently (2009) Dr Eyres was the Business Development Director, Food and Nutrition at Auckland University. Dr Eyres has had a varied career in the Food Industry spanning 35 years. He has held managing director (Sabre Safety) and general manager positions as well as Technical and Operations Directors’ roles with Abels Ltd. ETA Foods, APV, Bluebird Foods, New Zealand Dairy Foods, and Fonterra Brands. He has also held university roles, namely Director and Associate Professor of Food Technology and Agribusiness at Massey University (2000) and Business Development Director role at Auckland University. Dr Eyres previously held a position as a Board Director for FSANZ till June 2010, and has advisory roles with the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation and New Zealand Heart Foundation, as well as Chairman of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) Oils and Fats specialist group, a role he has held on and off for 28 years.
Professor David Fraser - Emeritus Professor of Animal Science at the University of Sydney. Professor Fraser previous held positions at the Medical Research Council, Dunn Nutritional Laboratory, Cambridge, United Kingdom from 1964 to 1986. He was elected a Fellow of Darwin College in Cambridge in 1985 and in 1986 Dr Fraser returned to the University of Sydney as Professor of Animal Husbandry, a position he held until 2007, including a period as the Dean of Veterinary Science from 1994 – 1998. On his retirement from the University in 2007, Dr Fraser was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor of Animal Science. Since then he has continued with full time teaching and research at the University of Sydney. Dr Fraser has published over 90 papers capturing a range of topics including the physiology of Vitamin D status in various population groups and contributing factors and the relationship of milk consumption and bone health. In 1988 he was awarded the Rank International Prize in Nutrition for his work on the metabolic conversion of vitamin D into the steroid hormone, calcitriol. In 2005 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia.
Professor Nigel French - Co-Director of EpiCentre and Professor of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health, Massey University, New Zealand. Professor French has an interest in molecular epidemiology and risk research including: food and environmental pathogens, particularly Campylobacter, E. coli and Salmonella. Before joining Massey University in 2004, Professor French was Head of the Defra Epidemiology Fellowship Unit, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool and a visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Professor Graham Giles - Chief Investigator of the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (Health 2020) and Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Centre of the Cancer Council of Victoria. Professor Giles 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 - Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) and Senior Health Economist at the University of Technology, Sydney. Dr Goodall has expertise in the economic evaluation of health programs. Dr Goodall also has interests in the areas of public health, primary care, access to health care and equity.
Dr Heather Greenfield - Adjunct Professor at Sydney University and a Professorial Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales. Dr Greenfield is a world leading expert in food composition and analysis. She also set up an international conference series on food composition data and is a member of FSANZ’s Food Composition Advisory Group. Dr Greenfield has published widely in nutrition science including over 60 papers presenting original analytical data on the composition of Australian foods, notably animal products. Dr Greenfield also established the food composition program at the South Pacific Commission. More recently, Dr Greenfield has continued to pursue research on food composition, vitamin D, and bone health in adolescence. Her influential publication entitled: Food composition data. Production, management and useco-authored with the late Professor David Southgate and used internationally for training, was published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and is available online in English, French, Spanish and Korean.
Professor Peter Langridge - Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics based at the University of Adelaide. Professor Langridge has expertise in plant genomics, genetics and breeding.
Professor John McNeil - Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. Professor McNeil’s principal interests include cardiovascular epidemiology, drug safety and toxicity. Professor McNeil also retains a clinical involvement as a vascular physician on the Vascular Medicine Unit at the Monash Medical Centre.
Professor Brian Priestly - Professorial Fellow (now part time) in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (DEPM) at Monash University, where he heads the Australian Centre for Human Health Risk Assessment (ACHHRA). Professor Priestly’s primary area of expertise is in toxicology and health risk assessment.
Dr Winsome Parnell- Associate Professor in Human Nutrition at the University of Otago. Dr Parnell has wide experience in the area of national nutrition surveys having been a Principal Investigator in both adult and children’s surveys over the past 20 years. Most recently she was the Nutrition Director of the 2008/2009 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey, funded by the Ministry of Health. The University of Otago was responsible for data collection and partnered with the Ministry of Health in the analysis of the data and preparation of the final report. Dr Parnell’s other research interests include food security of New Zealand households, and infant, childhood and adolescent nutrition. In the area of household food security she has developed a validated method for assessing food security in the population. She has also served as a Board member of Food Standards Australia New Zealand and of the Dietitians Board of New Zealand.
Professor Seppo Salminen - Director of Functional Foods Forum and Professor Health Biosciences, University of Turku, Finland and Visiting Professor, Food and 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. Professor Salminen is also on the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) advisory panels for these topics.
Professor Richard Shepherd - Co-director at the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. Professor Shepherd has carried out research on a range of issues related to the factors influencing food choice, perception of risk and risk communication. Professor Shepherd has published widely in all of these areas of research, including editing two books. Professor Shepherd is also a Chartered Psychologist, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Professor Murray Skeaff - Head of the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Otago. Professor Skeaff is involved in various areas of research which include health effects of fats and oils on cardiovascular disease, fatty acid biomarkers, and folate and vitamin D.
Professor Tony Smith - former Chair of the Complementary Medicines Evaluation Committee at the Therapeutic Goods Administration and a Member of the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Policy. Professor Smith is an Emeritus Professor in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Newcastle. Professor Smith was a consultant physician in the Newcastle Mater Hospital for more than 25 years. Currently, Professor Smith works extensively for the WHO, mainly in the area of improving the quality of use of medicines especially in developing countries.
Professor Mark Tamplin - Director of the University of Tasmania Food Safety Centre and co-founder of ComBase. Professor Tamplin’s expertise in modelling the growth and inactivation of microbial pathogens in food has led to service on expert panels for FAO/WHO risk assessments.
Dr Peter Williams - Visiting Principal Fellow at the University of Wollongong, where he was previously the Associate Professor coordinating dietetic education programs. He was a Board member of Food Standards Australia New Zealand for six years and is currently a member of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Advisory Committee on Complementary Medicines and the Advertising Standards Board of Australia. He has been an invited member of several National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) working parties for reviews of the Dietary Guidelines for Australia and Nutrient Reference Values. Dr Williams is a Fellow of the Dietitians Association of Australia and was President for two years. His research interests include foodservice nutrition and consumer understanding and use of health claims.