Professor Susan Jebb

About

Professor Jebb is a nutrition scientist who researches how diet affects the risk of gaining weight or becoming obese, and the interventions that could help people lose weight. She has conducted a series of randomised controlled trials to study how changes in diet affect the risk of cardiovascular disease, which found that, in general, body weight is a more important risk factor for ill-health than the precise nutritional composition of the diet. Her recent research has focused on interventions to encourage healthy and sustainable diets, and she is a co-director of the Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) group.

Professor Jebb is also interested in how scientific evidence on diet is translated into policy and practice, by government, industry, the public health community and the media. She has advised the government on obesity and is now a member of the Public Health England Obesity Programme Board, as well as chairing the Public Health Responsibility Deal Food Network, developing voluntary agreements with industry to improve the food environment. Professor Jebb was appointed as the Chair of the Food Standards Agency in June 2021.

She is actively involved in a number of events and media projects to engage the public in issues relating to diet and health. In 2008 she was awarded an OBE for services to public health. In 2015 she was one of the recipients of the John Maddox Prize for Standing Up For Science.