Professor Catherine Geissler
Catherine Geissler is currently Professor Emerita of Human Nutrition, King’s College London, President of The Nutrition Society of the UK & Ireland (2013-16) and Secretary General of the International Union of Nutritional Science (IUNS) (2013-2017). Her main research interests are in international public health nutrition; energy metabolism and obesity; and iron metabolism.
She spent her early life in Edinburgh, Scotland from birth to graduation in Dental Surgery. After a research year in Paris on a grant from the French Government, she worked as a Dental Surgeon in Scotland then moved to California, where she carried out dental nutrition research in the University of California, Berkeley, while studying for a Masters degree in Human Nutrition. This was followed by two years in Tehran, Iran, working on various research projects in the Nutrition Institute including field work for her own research in lactation for a PhD in Human Nutrition from Berkeley.
Professor Geissler was first appointed to the University of London as Lecturer in Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College, subsequently merged with King’s College London. She became Head of Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and Head of the Division of Health Sciences, and was Director of the National Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Health Sciences and Practice 2000-2011.
She has served on many professional committees including the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF) Food Advisory Committee, the World Cancer Research Fund grants committee, and the British and American Nutrition Societies, and extensively as consultant to international development agencies including the World Bank, CGIAR, FAO, WHO, UNICEF, British Council, in many countries including Iran, Haiti, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Niger, Benin, Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Yemen, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.
Professor Geissler has over 200 academic publications including the text book – Geissler & Powers: Human Nutrition (Elsevier 12th edition), the 13th edition is in preparation to be published by Oxford University Press, and with Vaughan, an illustrated volume – The New Oxford Book of Food Plants (Oxford University Press 2nd edition).