Professor John Mathers BSc Dip. Nutr PhD FAfN

John Mathers is Professor of Human Nutrition, Director of the Human Nutrition Research Centre and Director of the Centre for Healthier Lives at Newcastle University. He was an undergraduate in Newcastle and undertook his PhD and post-doctoral research in the University of Cambridge followed by a Research Fellow post in Edinburgh University before being appointed in Newcastle. His major research interests are in understanding how eating patterns influence risks of age-related diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, dementia and bowel cancer. He uses genomic and epigenomics approaches to understand the mechanisms through which nutrition influences cell function and, ultimately, health.

John is a past President of the Nutrition Society and has served on numerous grant panels and other committees including the Joint Programming Initiative – A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (JPI HDHL), Medical Research Council (MRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), World Cancer Research Fund and other research funders. He is a Trustee of the British Nutrition Foundation.

John is also Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition. In December 2020, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Nutrition Society.