Head of Diet & Population Health
Dr Susan Jebb is Head of Diet and Population Health at the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research unit (HNR) in Cambridge, UK. With over 25 years experience in nutrition research, Susan now leads a team of scientists working across a range of public health nutrition issues, with particular emphasis on the translation of nutrition science into policy and practice.
Her career began in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Surrey prior to her PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she studied methods to measure body composition. After post-doctoral research at the MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit into energy metabolism in cancer and HIV infection, she moved to HNR in 1998, where her research focuses on the role of dietary factors in the aetiology and treatment of obesity. It includes observational studies on dietary patterns and weight gain, explanatory dietary intervention studies and more pragmatic trials of community-based weight management strategies. She is also one of the Principal Investigators in the Behaviour and Health Research Unit (BHRU).
Beyond her research programme Susan is the Science Advisor on obesity to the Department of Health in England and formerly chair of the cross-government Expert Advisory Group on Obesity in England. Susan was the lead science advisor to the foresight report ‘tackling obesities: future choices’. She is currently Chair of the NICE Public Health Advisory Committee and Chair of the Public Health Responsibility Deal Food Network. In 2008 she was awarded an OBE for services to public health. She regularly contributes to media features on food or obesity including several BBC documentaries. In a personal capacity, she writes a nutrition column for a popular magazine.