Professor John Mathers PhD Hon FafN

John Mathers is Emeritus Professor of Human Nutrition at Newcastle University where he was the founding Director of the Human Nutrition Research Centre and of the Centre for Healthier Lives. 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), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and other research funders. He is a Trustee of the British Nutrition Foundation and of the World Cancer Research Fund UK.

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.