Ricardo Uauy PhD MD

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Background

Professor Ricardo Uauy was appointed Professor of Public Health Nutrition and took up his part-time post in July 2002 at the end of his 8-year tenure as Director of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), Chile. His early career was in paediatrics and neonatology, later he studied nutritional biochemistry and metabolism, and international nutrition, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he gained his PhD. From 2006 -10 he is the President of the International Union of Nutrition Sciences. His research interests include essential fatty acid metabolism, childhood obesity, and nutritional needs of older people.

Teaching

Research

He is one of the most distinguished scientists in international nutrition today and brings to the School exceptional strengths in leadership and nutrition research. Professor Uauy's influence is substantial and he is a highly respected advisor to the UN, WHO and FAO. His expertise is wide-ranging and includes basic nutritional science, applied biomedical research, and population-based intervention programmes. His areas of interest span the age spectrum from infants to the elderly, and the social spectrum from poverty to affluence. He was honoured with the Presidential Award (Chile) in Science for his research into the effects of essential fatty acids on gene expression during retinal and brain development in 1997. He received the E.V. McCollum Award from the American Society of Nutritional Sciences USA in 2000 and was elected Member of the Chilean Academy of Medicine in 2001. He received the A. Horwitz award from PAHO/WHO in 2005 for leadership in Public Health in the Americas and in 2006 the American Society fpr Nutrition Kellog's award for International Nutrition. He is the President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences IUNS 2006-10. He has edited/co-edited 8 books and published over 300 original scientific publications.

Selected publications

• Lobstein, T.; Baur, L.; Uauy, R.; Obesity in children and young people: a crisis in public health. Obes Rev, 2004; 5 Suppl 1:4-104
• Kain, J.; Uauy, R.; Albala; Vio, F.; Cerda, R.; Leyton, B. School-based obesity prevention in Chilean primary school children: methodology and evaluation of a controlled study International Journal of Obesity, 2004; 28(4):483
• Llanos, A.; Hertrampf, E.; Cortes, F.; Pardo, A.; Grosse, S.D.; Uauy, R. Cost-effectiveness of a folic acid fortification program in Chile Health Policy, 2007; 83(2-3):295-303
• Morris, S.S.; Cogill, B.; Uauy, R.; for the Maternal and Child Undernutrition Study Group( inc Kirkwood, B.R.) Effective international action against undernutrition: why has it proven so difficult and what can be done to accelerate progress? Lancet, 2008; 371(9612):608-21
• Uauy, R.; Solomons, N.; Diet, nutrition, and the life-course approach to cancer prevention. J Nutr, 2005; 135(12 Suppl):2934S-2945S
• Uauy, R.; Kain, J.; Mericq, V.; Rojas, J.; Corvalan, C. Nutrition, child growth, and chronic disease prevention Annals of Medicine, 2008; 40(1):11-20
• Uauy, R.; Kain, J. The Epidemiologic transition: need to incorporate obesity prevention into nutrition programs Public Health Nutrition, 2002; 5(1A):223-229
• McMichael, A.J.; Powles, J.W.; Butler, C.D.; Uauy, R. Energy and health 5 - Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health Lancet, 2007; 370(9594):1253-1263

Full publications listing (since 2001)